Going Through 8 Lives With You
by sanzopriestess
Summary: One day Law finds a girl bleeding to death in the middle of the street, had she been normal he wouldn't have stopped and helped. But there are plenty of intresing things about her, one of them being the look she gives him when he decides to help. He takes her to his sub and treats her there. So what happens with this strange new girl on his sub?
1. Not yet dead

For Law it was love at first sight, though it would be several years before he would even somewhat admit it. When one visualizes love at first sight, they don't see a girl covered in her own blood, dieing in the middle of the street, a pool of her blood surrounding her body. When one thinks about the fleeting glances two might exchange, one doesn't typically think about a fierce glare that told anyone who looked down at her or slowed down to move on and go save some other unfortunate soul who hadn't accepted death. However, since Law isn't a man of ridiculous ideas such as love at first sight, he only saw that fierce look in her eyes as he stood over her.

He crouched down in front of the rapidly paling girl, his hands dangling between his knees. "Do you need some help Miss?" He asked her.

"Touch me and I'll scream rape." She half growled through clenched teeth. She didn't need his help. And half panted due to the strain talking had on her already slowing down body.

Law chuckled and said, "I do believe the word fire or pirates may catch peoples attention more then the word rape will." With the amount of blood around and on the pale girl, she wasn't going to last much longer. He had a feeling she was doing good to even manage to talk to him right now.

"I don't want your-" She began to talk to him in the same low growling voice but her eyes closed, her head lulled to the side and she didn't finish her sentence. So he decided to do it for her.

"Help, I know. Too bad you didn't get to scream like you planned to." He chuckled at the idea as he picked her up bridal style and began walking back to the sub. Kidnap might be another good word for her to scream to the cold uncaring people that walked the crowded streets.

"A bit messy don't 'cha captain?" Shachi asked as he walked past his mechanic. Law chose to ignore his subordinates comment as he entered the operation room. The girl he laid down on the table wasn't dead; she had an almost non-existent pulse- but a pulse all the same. And that was all the encouragement he needed.

After all what use did a completely girl have to him?

He removed the knife that had been lodged in her chest, dead center of her heart and lay the bloody almost murder weapon on the table near him, right next to the clean, disinfected surgical tools that were ready to aid him in sewing the girl back up. With the amount of blood loss, her chance of survival was low but not zero. And if she died now that would make everything up until this point a waste of time.

The first sound the girl heard was a slow lazy Beep. Beep. Beep. Peeling her eyes open, she tilted her head from side to side, examining what she could of the room she was currently in. She reached her hands up to her chest to feel a dull pain in the center of the chest, but more to the left. She frowned and didn't have to wait for whomever to walk into the room for her to know who it would be. She knew that the man with a sarcastic voice, dark hair, slightly tanned skin, cold curious grey eyes and the only harmless think about him a top his head, a fuzzy hat, was responsible for saving her. Whether he did it himself of he forced someone else to do it, she didn't care.

There was a painful struggle to sit up, a lot of hissing and grumbling at herself for making pathetic whimpers of pain. But eventually she made it to a sitting position, breathing heavily, but pleased with herself. After catching her breath she slid out of bed much easier and was half way out the door when she saw him come out of a room a few doors down the had been empty hallway. He had on an open white lab coat, was carrying a clipboard and was armed with a smirk that she had yet to see him without. Granted she had only seen him for less then ten-no five minutes. The only difference between before she 'died' and now was its size.

She was going to duck back into the room and hide, but it was far too late for that. He had already seen her. "You shouldn't be up and moving quite so soon Miss."

She narrowed her bright electric blue colored eyes at him and grumbled "Sir, I have a name, use it."

"Enlighten me. I'm terribly sorry I can't read minds." Not that he wanted to. Or needed to. Actions and facial expressions were often sufficient enough. However, her name wasn't stamped on her forehead, as helpful as that might be.

"What a shame sir. Apparently, your hearing isn't the only thing impaired. It also appears that your psychic abilities aren't up to par either."

"Do you know who I am?" Law inquired slowly but not threateningly. He wondered what her reaction would be. If she'd continue talking like this to him or if she'd suddenly clamp her mouth shut and refuse to say another word. Or if she couldn't care less. To be honest Law hoped it was the later of the two, after all what fun would the first be?

"No. Am I supposed to?" He opened his mouth to answer her question to his question, but she wasn't done yet and wasn't about to let him cut in. "But I suppose you're a pirate, judging by the smiley face thingy on your shirt. Is that thing a jolly roger wanna be? Or is it supposed to be a jolly roger?"

"It doesn't matter." Law paused which a quiet chuckle. Quite amusing this one was. "Back to more pressing matters. You were about to enlighten me and unveil your name Miss."

"Oh yes, how could I forget?" She snapped at him, crossing her arms and fixing a glare at him. "My name is Vivian. That's it, just Vivian, absolutely positively no nicknames."

"Nothing like Vivi-"

"No." She instantly snapped, interrupting him.

"Ann?"

"No. Now that I've so graciously given you my name, what is yours?"

"Trafalgar Law." He simply answered intently watching her facial expression. He didn't know what he expected, maybe for the girl with odd ears that stuck out of her head where her human ears were supposed to be to tremble in fear like any normal person would. Or maybe he expected her to freeze up and for even the white and black striped tail that was very much attached to stop flicking like an irritated cat. But whatever he might have been expecting wasn't the reaction he received. "Oh, you're that guy. The 'Surgeon of Death' right? Well now I have to check myself for any new abnormalities." She started muttering a checklist and saying check after each and every one of them, touching what she named as she went through the list.

She reached up with both hands and felt her furry ears- check.

Two eyes, a nose, her mouth and nothing extra- check.

Two arms, two legs, no extra limbs- check.

So far so good. But maybe he fed me some kind of chemicals that hadn't taken effect yet. She mused.

Nothing sprouting out of my back, no weird feelings and no odd urges- check check and check.

Maybe the Surgeon of Death not killing her was a good sign. Vivian thought about that for a few seconds. But then again maybe the Surgeon of Death not killing her wasn't a good thing at all!

Well I hope you've enjoyed chapter one and will choose to review it. There will be more soon.


	2. Underwater?

"By new abnormalities, are you implying that you've had your ears, tail and fanglike incisors for awhile?"

"Of corse! But if you tease me about them then I'm going to claw your eyes out." She had the sharp nails to do it too.

"Did you by any chance-"

"No. I'm never touching one of those accursed fruits." She was scared to, let alone consume one. After all in a round about way, she had already consumed on, so then there was a possibility that even though it wasn't her fault for having consumed the fruit that the devils would still fight inside her and tear her apart. And why did everyone always assume that?

"Then how do you have catlike features?"

"Like I'm telling you that. I'm not answering any questions. I'm not going to become your newest experiment." That's what pirate doctors did right? Inhuman experiments and stuff.

"As much as I'd like to do a few tests, and as much as I'd like a 'new experiment'," He quoted her word selection. ", I don't believe you'd be very fun." There were always ways to make her cooperate, but still.

"Damn straight. I'll make your experiments and tests a living hell."

She obviously wasn't going to cooperate on her own either. "Just answer my questions and I'll have no reason for you to become my next 'experiment'."

She crossed her arms and huffed, her tail flicking back and forth behind her, her eyes narrowed. "Fine."

"Thank you Miss Vivian."

"Sir, it's just Vivian." She grumbled. And sat there waiting for the onslaught of questions she knew he was going to fire at her. She wasn't going to answer anything he didn't ask for. After all she didn't even ask to be here, she told him to leave her alone, to not help her. If he had listened to her she'd be dead, in heaven or hell, or haunting somebody's sorry ass. Or maybe she'd be getting on with her life. But nooo, she was here, chest sewed up like a ripped something-or -other, with neat little stitches.

"Do you know how you have those unique features of yours?"

"Yes."

"Care to elaborate?" He asked, catching onto her game almost instantly.

"Not really. But I don't seem to have a choice-"

"There are always choices Miss Vivian." Law said with a straight face. Of course there were times when one was obviously the smarter, of the two. But there was still a choice, and she had one right now. Answer his questions or don't.

She rolled her eyes at him and continued on. "So I'll so kindly give you a slight insight as to why I have these 'unique features' of mine." She paused. "My mom ate a devil fruit and she was pregnant. You're a doctor; you know how pregnancy and that stuff work. I'm sure you can piece together the rest of the story.

"Do you have any siblings?" He asked.

Vivian didn't see the relevance of the question, but answered anyway. "Yes, a dead twin." Her twin had died at birth so she never felt much of a loss for the sibling, though she sometimes wondered how her life would be if she had a twin with her. Would it have been normal or like her?

"Is your mother still living?" He asked another irreverent question.

"No." She curtly answered.

He wrote something down, a few things actually. Probably just her answers, though she didn't understand why they were so interesting or even needed to be recorded like that. Then he asked something that made a little bit more sense to ask. "I see. Are you able to swim?"

She shrugged. "Don't know, don't care to find out."

"And why is that Miss?"

"Stop calling me that. I've enlightened you, my name is Vivian. But I," She began then realized what she was doing and in a sharper tone snapped "I don't have to tell you." No way was she going to tell a pirate one of her fears. If it was a body of water that could completely submerge her, whether it be a pool, a lake, an ocean or a tub full of water, she was afraid of it. If she told the man before her he'd surely use the information against her. "Are you done yet?"

They both knew that Law wasn't done by far. But Law decided that for now it was best to stop. After all he wanted hr full cooperation. "For now. However I have to redress your wound."

"Whatever just make it quick." She closed her eyes, trying not to concentrate on his hands and exactly where her wound was.

"Good day Vivian." He said, the sound of the door closing soon followed his words.

Well he got my name right. She thought, wondering exactly when his strong hands had finished their job and when he had even gotten up.

Maybe tomorrow she'd escape.

She opened the door, looked left- clear. Then right- clear. Before she turned left and ran down the empty hallway, her footsteps quiet ,making almost no sound as she ran. She went to a promising looking door that she hadn't tried yet and was about to fling it open when she was tackled with the word "Don't!" being shouted into her ear.

Something soft but solid landed on top of her. Startled she scratched and clawed her ways out from under it. Vivian stayed in a defensive crouch, her ears flicking, listening for any sound to catch a hold of. Her eyes stared intently at the creature, watching or any sigh of movement. And her tail swished back and forth like a cat about to pounce. Blood dripped from her nails and onto the cold floor. A growl was emitting itself from her throat.

Vivian examined the thing that had nearly crushed her to death. It was mostly orange and white, but with bright red staining both. It was also furry with cute rounded ears atop its head. And it was howling as it rolled around on the floor. Was it a. . . .Bear? And had it spoke? "Excuse me." Vivian said, she felt stupid as she spoke to the howling in pain, bleeding white and orange blur. Now she was dieing to go through that door. It took several tries, several times she was caught and redirected. But each try got her closer to her escape rout. It took her weeks for her to completely map out her escape route. And that door was either going to be another failure or would be the last obstacle between her and freedom.

The howling thing froze, its cute rounded ears, very much unlike her own, perked up, before beady black eyes stared up at her from the floor. "Are you the newest member?" He asked her.

"Don't make me laugh. I would never join this crew." She straightened to a standing position, and it did too. She moved to the side to get to the door, and it did too. "Is that the exit?" She asked the bear.

"Yes."

"Then let me out." Ha! So the bear and that door were the only things that were in her way. Mow them down and she'd be out, she'd never have to see the Surgeon of Death again. Never have to fear that he'd do something to her in her sleep ever again.

"I can't do that."

"But you can talk." She pointed out. Of corse it could talk, but not let her through!

"Sorry." the bear said ducking it's head as a cloud of depression crowded above his head. She gave him a weird look and tried to get past him again. "We're submerged." It said, snapping out of whatever little mood that had just been.

"Submerged?"

"Yes, underwater." The girl before him froze, the only movement was the slight flick of her ears. Even her tail had gone still. "You say we're underwater?"

The bear nodded "Yes."

"As in if I go through that door I'll be letting water into this ship? O-or if I run out, I'll be running right into the ocean?" Well that sucked. It appeared that more then that bear and the door stood between her and her so called freedom. Vivian wanted to smack herself for her shaky voice as she spoke to the polar bear.

"Yes. That's why I stopped you."

"Oh. Thank god. I'm sorry I hurt you. Let's get Law to fix you up." She grabbed on of his paws in both of her delicate hands and pulled her back to the room she was all too familiar with. "He's a doctor, a surgeon actually." She informed the polar bear, dragging him to the infirmary. Then she went to the door next to it down the hall. She knocked on it and began speaking, hoping she had his attention. "Hello, Mr. Law? I hurt a talking polar bear wearing an orange jumpsuit and boots." She raised her hand to knock again when the door opened and he caught her hand inches from his body. He examined her bloody hand and then glanced at the one at her side.

"Go wash up." He told her. Then went to the infirmary to assess the damage she had done to his first mate.

A tidbit of information I recently found out: Everyone here is aware of the 12 Chinese zodiacs right? Well did you know the white tiger is one? I believe it happens every 60 years. Look it up, it's interesting if you like that kind of thing.

I sincerely thank the following people for their reviews, they made my day.

10th squad 3rd seat

Hesmus

Seachell13

And,

Shiningheart of Thunderclan


	3. Hats off

When Law saw his first mate he sighed and asked "What did you do?" Vivian didn't seem the type to randomly attack someone. And if she had, they were going to have to have more then a little bit more then a talk.

"She was going to sink us Captain. So I stopped her." He informed the man.

"Using what methods?"

"Tackling her." He answered in a 'what else' tone of voice.

Law nodded in understanding as he tied the first of many to come bandages around his first mate after cleaning the wound. They weren't too deep, nothing that would take for ever to heal or scar to the point that his fur wouldn't grow back. "I see."

They sat there in silence as Law moved onto the other claw marks that needed tending to. But when he was on the last one Bepo broke it saying "Captain," He waited for a response.

"Yes Bepo?"

"I think the strange girl is afraid of water."

Pausing Law looked up with a slight smile hooked on his lips. "Yes, I know." Law resumed his work, almost finished, but added, "Remember, it's her secret. I know nothing about that rather amusing and ironic fear of hers." Her fear was rather amusing because of the way she thought she was hiding the fear so well. But the way she had spoke about swimming, as if she'd never touch any amount of water that required swimming in it. And it was ironic because she was in a- well a submarine, completely surrounded by her fear. Yet he had yet to see her curl up in the fetal position or start crying, or doing whatever she might do whenever she's scared. Or maybe she had yet to discover that she was in a submarine.

What Law didn't know was that Vivian was wildly pacing along some empty hallway in what she hoped was the belly of the sub, the farthest part away from water. Not only was she inside a few ton hunk of metal. She sharply about-faced and she went down the way she had just come from, but only to a certain place. But she was at an unknown depth, in the middle of the ocean! She turned around again. Meaning if they sprung a leak or ran into god only knew what, they were all screwed. Another sharp about-face. The Surgeon of Death was a devil fruit user, wasn't he?! Shouldn't he- yet again she turned around. Be fear for his life?! He must be insane! Vivian determined as she made another lap.

What Vivian didn't realize was that she had a small audience of two. They watched in fascination as she paced, walking quickly away from them, clutching her head as if she were in pain. And speed walking back towards them, as she waked towards them they watched her facial expressions, a new one each time she turned around.

"Is she our newest crewmate?" The boy, the one with sunglasses and longer hair asked, leaning his upper body closer to the boy next to him. She was quite an animated person from what he could see. But maybe she was just in distress.

"I don't know. Wouldn't Captain have told us if we had a new member?"

The one with the sunglasses shrugged. "You should have seen him carry her in. She was dripping blood. There was a trail from beyond the deck all the way to the operation room. I thought she was dead for sure."

The other guy rolled his eyes. "Obviously you thought wrong." With that he stepped away from his friend and decided to ask, "May we help you?" Her pacing was making him dizzy. When he spoke the girl jumped about a foot off the ground. Her blue eyes focusing on in. Despite having cat features, her pupils were round, with no slit in them.

"Is there something wrong with my pacing?" She instantly growled at him.

"No." He muttered.

While Shachi said "If you pace anymore you're going to leave a rut in the floor."

"I try." She snapped. But neither boy didn't not notice how she stopped with a nervous glance at the ground below her feet.

He didn't know what to say to that. Sure he was used to Captains sarcasm, but she was. . . Different. Suddenly she giggled and walked closer to them. They stood as she came to a stop in front of them.

Vivian now stood in front of the two strange men, none of them moved. One wore a hat that read 'Penguin' with a yellow bill that hid his eyes and a red pompom on the top of it. The other wore a teal puffy looking hat that had a red bill and sunglasses. "I like your hat." She said slowly reaching up towards the one that read 'Penguin'. Then with lightening speed she snatched it off his head, turned and ran.

For a second both boys stood shocked as they watched her retreating back before they looked at each other. "You gonna go get that?" Shachi asked his obviously stunned friend.

He nodded slowly before he tore off after her.

She looked behind her with a smile as she finally heard the sound of boots of the floor. He had finally started chasing her, good. He was chasing her like a cat would a mouse. But she wasn't the cat this time. As she ran she pulled on his hat but after a few seconds of giving it a chance she stopped dead in her tracks. It covered her ears, and was folding them in and pressing them to her head, very uncomfortable. Vivian took off the hat, disappointed that she hadn't enjoyed it, and threw it to the floor before running off before he got to it.

Penguin rounded the corner she had disappeared around. The hallway of corse was empty of the strange girl. But there was however something in the middle of the hallway. He walked slowly towards it. Looking down he saw that it was his hat. He bent down, dusted it off and put it back on his head before he went back to the control room.


	4. Questions

He entered the room only to find her plastered to the glass window. When he walked in she didn't turn around, he ears twitched to signify that she had in fact heard him enter, but that was it. "Don't like my hat?" HE gently teased with a small smile. He was glad that she didn't want it. He wasn't going to fight a girl for his hat, but there wasn't exactly a second one he could grab.

"No I did not." She curtly told him before asking, "Why does your captain have a submarine if he's a devil fruit user?" Almost all of the Supernova's had devil fruit powers, what made this guy any different?

He sat down in his chair. Her question was rather blunt, kindda like Captain often was. "Well," Penguin quietly pondered the answer to her question. Honestly, he had never cared to ask. ", ships couldn't handle Captain-"

"You mean he couldn't handle a ship." She corrected him, not moving her gaze or body from the glass window. "Is this thing even safe?" She asked before he was given the chance to answer her first question. The girl lifted her closed fist up to the glass and knocked tentatively on it, as if she thought the glass might spider web from the spot she knocked on then proceed to shatter inwards, or might break at any second.

"It's safe." HE reassured her, not adding that things a lot harder then her small fist had hit the glass, both inside and out. "But no, I meant exactly what I said, ships can't handle Captain. And so he decided he would try something different-"

"Like a submarine? What about the talking polar bear?" She asked, finally peeling her attention away from the glass just long enough to look over her shoulder at the guy. Vivian didn't think that the talking polar bear was weird; after all, she was the one with prominent catlike features that almost everyone commented on. The first thing after hello was almost always 'are those real?' or something just as irritating as that. As a child with no self-control she had also made it harder on herself by not trying to cover them up, sometimes she'd even fight the other kids or swing at an adult for not being able to look past her ears or tail. She looked down at her hands, the polar bears blood was dried and no longer fresh, but it was still staining her hands. She obviously hadn't obeyed Law's command to go wash up.

The guy shrugged, not that she saw, her attention was back to the ocean before them. "Captains first mate." That was the only exclamation he could think of to offer the girl. She was cute, quite small and delicate looking. She didn't look as though she could handle being a pirate. But then again. . .

"Did normal first mates not work for Law either?"

Why was this girl addressing Captain so casually? Penguin couldn't help but wonder as he chuckled quietly at her question, saying, and "I guess not."

"You know, I like you." She declared turning to face him all the way. She took a few steps towards him saying, "We've been talking for awhile and I don't believe you're blind the way you were chasing me. But you haven't mentioned these." She stuck her hand into his face expectantly as she added, "I'm Vivian."

He leaned all the way back in his seat and grasped her hand in his own saying "Penguin, the navigator." He noticed her sharp pointed fingernails at that moment. So the girl had claws, maybe she could handle being a pirate with those things.

She smiled brightly at him and asked, "Do you always introduce yourself like that?"

Vivian began spending lots of time in that room with Penguin. She liked watching the fish from the floor in front of the large glass window that served for underwater navigation. Penguin was also good company. He was a quiet man, but he talked back to her when she spoke to him.

"Law." Vivian said, stretching his name as she stretched, much like a cat. He rear was in the air, arms stretched out in front of her, mouth open wide with a yawn. She had been napping on Bepo's side the one Law wasn't on.

She stepped over the sleeping bear with a slight jump before she plunked down next to Law, who opened his eyes and lazily asked "Yes?"

"Can I join your crew?" Despite what she had said to Bepo, Penguin thought it might be a good idea and Vivian trusted his judgment. Plus she kindda liked it here with everyone. They certainly never mentioned her ears and tail and whatnot, in fact they seemed to be used to it. And if she were on the sub with the pirates then she'd be harder to find, harder to track. Vivian had been practicing with Penguin how she might ask the man. Would she demand it, or would asking nicely work better? Or maybe he'd ask her first- both Penguin and her had quickly discarded that thought.

"We're on a submarine." He pointed out, a fact she knew well.

"I know." She slowly said. What was he trying to get at? She wondered/ Vivian knew she was on a sub, she had known the fact for the three months she had been aboard the yellow submarine.

"And you're ok with that?" Law couldn't have a person on his crew that wasn't ok with being on a submarine.

"Enough to seriously ask to join your crew." She lied. Not really, she wasn't really ok with the idea of being on a submarine, but she could live, and get used to being on it. Whenever she had stopped and thought about being in a few ton hunk of metal glass and other things, below the surface of the ocean and all of the possible ways water could get into the sub, she'd run to Shachi and make sure those things couldn't happen.

"Why not." He answered with a shrug, closing his eyes.

"Wait, is that a yes?" she gaped at him. Was it really that easy? Why wasn't it harder? Were there no tests, no, if you can't do this you can't join? No proving herself to the man before her or to the crew she was joining?

Law opened only one eye to see Vivian gaping at him, looking slightly confused, her head even cocked to the side a bit. The only color about the girl was her blue eyes and black stripes on only her ears and tail. Her hair was a short, slightly blonde tinted white color and her skin was a little darker then her hair color was. She had already made friends with his navigator and mechanic and had scratched Bepo up pretty good, meaning she could hold her own and wouldn't be a liability. "Is there a problem Miss Vivian?"

She shook her head "Huh?" She hadn't even bothered correction him, meaning he had just ripped the girl out of her thoughts. Oh well. "Oh, no, not at all. It's just that was far too easy. To be honest I was expecting something. . . I don't know, more." maybe she had just over thought everything and that's' why it seemed too easy. "I mean, don't I have to do something?"

"Sure-" He began, watching as she snapped to attention, ready to carry out whatever he told her to. Maybe he should tell her to jump overboard. He laughed at the thought, but decided not to be that mean to her. "Stop making things too difficult."

"But that's-"

"You don't have to prove yourself." he voice carried an edge on it this time as it reached her ears. It wasn't as though the other crewmembers hadn't accepted her, and even if they hadn't, he'd tell them to and hoped for the best. They already saw her as one of them.

"What?!"

"Just know what you're getting yourself into." He said to her. God only knew they didn't want her freaking out of they were caught in a storm, or were fighting marines. "Are you prepared to kill?" He decided to ask her.

She looked at her hands, picking at her nails. Before she looked back at him and said, "I've done it before."

"Are you prepared to be and do everything that comes with being a pirate?" If she wasn't they were either going to ditch her in the middle of the ocean-with or without a lifeboat or flotation device. Or they were going to drop her off at the next island.

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As always I hope you've enjoyed this and the last few chapters and review. :)


	5. Opinions

She shrugged, she didn't know about being prepared to be and do EVERYTHING, most things she could think of, sure she was ready. But what did his definition of everything mean? It was most likely very different from her own. So she decided to verify. "What does everything include?"

"Fighting marines-" Law began the list but was only able to name one before he was interrupted much to his annoyance.

"They're our enemies."

Law smiled, despite having been so rudely interrupted. She obviously already thought of herself as one of them too. "That's right." She seemed to ready to become a criminal; possibly even become a wanted criminal. Speaking of . . . "Being wanted?" He asked her.

She laughed lightly brushing the tips of her hair away from here eyes. "Ever wonder why you found me dieing in the middle of a street?"

"Only every other night." He sarcastically answered with a smirk. He did frequently wonder, play scenarios out in his head or turn ideas over in his mind, but he never found the need to find Vivian and ask her why. Now would be an excellent time to ask. "What's the story?"

She shook her head, lightly brushing the tips of her hair that she had shaken into her eyes back out of them with fingertips. "Later. I still believe that was far too easy. I mean I'm sure I'm fully prepared to be a pirate, a Heart Pirate none the less- I mean I can be huggable and loveable when I want to be. And I'm prepared to do almost anything you want me to."

The Heart Pirates huggable and loveable? Is that what she thought? He didn't even want to know Law determined that he did not want to dwell on Vivian's strange inaccurate words that had nothing to do with the conversation at hand. "Then I don't see the problem."

"I do!"

"What is it?"

"The level of difficulty of joining your crew!"

"I am the captain, and I say you're now a part of this crew. That's all there is to it." Law almost growled at the girl, becoming more then slightly irritated. The more circles they went in the less happier he got. When she opened her mouth to look like what was going to be protest he quickly cut in "End of conversation."

She threw herself out of her criss-crossed position, wrapped the arm closer to him around his neck, and the arm on the outside of them around his side, she was half sitting in his lap and half hanging off of it. Then just as quickly as she threw herself at him she released him, jumped up and ran back into the sub.

She went in search of Penguin first, she'd tell Shachi later maybe. They'd figure it out of the next island . . . or so. "Guess what?!" She shouted.

Penguin tensed as a mostly white blur flung open the door of the control room and flung herself inside the room. He was prepared to go out and fight marines, the way she shouted, it sounded as if they were under attack or something. "What?" She tackled him, only a few steps back, not to the floor. Was she scared of something? He wondered to himself. Vivian was clinging to him tightly, her head buried in the chest of his white boiler suit. "What is it Vivian?" He repeated himself. Penguin was becoming concerned to say the least. This wasn't normal Vivian behavior.

When she looked up at him no tears stained her cheeks, no fear tried to hide itself, in fact she was smiling brightly. "He said- I'm now- I'm one- I'm a Heart Pirate now!" She finally managed to screech.

He pat her on the back with a small smile that couldn't even begin to compare to the size and brightness of the one playing over Vivian's features. "Welcome to the family."

She smiled up at him for a few seconds before it wavered and fell before she let go of him and took a step back. Her ears perked up a little bit. "Why are you called the Heart Pirates? It's not very intimidation unless you rip out the hearts of the peoples chests that you fight. But I don't- can't see any of you doing that- well maybe Law. . . "She trailed off thoughtfully, shook her head and resumed talking." I mean are you trying to contradict yourselves? Hearts are all lovely and squishy and have to be protected by your ribcage. But you're all pirates so by name you're all horrible criminals. Which one is it?" She paused then slowly asked with growing suspicion "Did you let Shachi name you guys?"

Penguin laughed, though he couldn't keep up with her onslaught of questions, he had forgotten over half of them for sure. If only she knew the full extent of what their Captain could do before anybody's hearts got involved. "No, we didn't let Shachi name us. And even if we did, he wouldn't have called us the Heart Pirates." No, Shachi would have tried something ferocious and cool sounding. Thank god it hadn't been left up to any of them. "But if you have a problem with our name, then go talk to Captain." No doubt she had just come from talking to him, but what could he do about their name? Vivian certainly wasn't about to get it fixed.

She made a face, scrunching her nose up. "Do I have to call Law Captain now that I'm his subordinate and he is indeed now my captain."

He shrugged; it's what everyone else called him. "You'll have to bring that up wit him too." Penguin didn't want to tell Vivian wrong and get her in trouble.

"Oh, alright." Vivian sounded disappointed, as if she expected him to have the answers to everything. Captain had more answers to more things then he did. "Do you want to go play a game?" She asked.

He shook his head, no; he didn't want to play a game with Vivian. The games she liked to sometimes play when she was in a more playful mood was better suited for Bepo or Shachi to play. Plus he had to steer the ship. "Why don't you go talk to Captain?"

"Ok fine." She grumbled and with that walked out of the room and back to the deck. When they had told her that they were no longer submerged Vivian had torn out of her room like a bat out of hell. She had bowled everybody that stood in her way over; she had to get some fresh air before she died. But when she had burst out onto the deck there had been no sun, or start, just flat, seemingly endless, slate grey colored clouds. However, that was yesterday. Today, it was beautiful and sunny, perfect for taking naps in the warm rays. Perfect in Vivian's opinion. "Law." She said standing over him.

He opened one eye in response to her calling his name. Oh, so she was worthy of only one grey eye?! One day she was going to be worthy of both. She grumbled to herself. Meaning that he'd have enough respect for her that he'd fully acknowledge her, not in this half assed kind of way. "Back so soon?" He asked. In her opinion his tone was worse then him refusing to look fully at her. But then again this was Law.

"Yes I am. I have a question for you."

"Shoot." He said opening his arms wide if only for a second.

"You might want to be careful who you say that too." She told him. Good thing she wasn't a spy or something similar, it would be the perfect chance to literally shoot him and say he told her to as he died at her feet. But Vivian doubted he was such an easy man to kill.

"That I might Miss. Vivian."

"I've told you, my name is Vivian."

The act of her correcting him put a small smile on his lips. So that still got under her skin. That was good to know. "So I've been told. But I've also been told that you have a question and thus far none have been asked."

"Right. Must I call you Captain?"

"If I say yes, will you ever address me as Captain?" He answered her question with a question.

Vivian shook her head "No. If you wanted me to call you Captain, then you should have introduced yourself as Captain." She told him.

"That I should have. However, I wanted to see how much common since you had-"

"And the verdict?" Vivian instantly cut in. Curiosity killed the cat, good thing she's only half cat. That's' what her mom used to always tell her when she got injured from climbing trees or skinning her knees, or something like that.

"None, you're still here."

"I could leave." She told him, despite having just signed her life away to the man below her.

"Oh you're welcome to anytime, the exit is right over there." Law made a large sweeping gesture with his hand around the whole deck, skipping the entrance onto the deck.

"Yes, because I'm going to jump ship." She grumbled.

Law chuckled at the nervous glance around at the surrounding water Vivian gave it, as if the water were evil. She quickly shot her attention back to him when with a shrug said "You never know."

"I know that I'd never. Plus that's just plain stupid. Devil fruit user or not, drowning would be a slow death unless you hit your head. And being eaten by sea kings doesn't sound too pleasant either."

"That's a matter of opinion." He bluntly told her.

She almost instantly shot him a dirty look and snapped "You're sick."

"That too is a matter of opinion." He was perfectly healthy.

Despite having just called the man before her 'sick', she plopped down next to him and curled into his side, wrapping her tail tightly around her legs. Her cheek rested on his shoulder and she clung to the arm that was attached to the shoulder her cheek rested on.

"Captain." Laws' mechanic said as he walked through the door and onto the deck. He stopped however when he saw the tiger girl curled up against his captain. She looked quite content and was that slight rumbling . . . purring? That he was hearing?

His captain looked up expectantly at him "Anything wrong?"


	6. Cat naps

He shook his head "No, nothing's wrong. But we need supplies and one of the lights is blown." His eyes shifted to Vivian, back to Captain and then looked at both of them. Of course there was something wrong, there was a cat girl curled up against Captain purring. "A little too cute for you don't you think Captain?" He asked. Shachi never thought that he'd see a girl curled up like that against his captain, let alone a cat girl. When he didn't say anything Shachi saluted him and then returned to whatever he had been doing before he reported to Captain.

He could feel Vivian's chest rumbling slightly. Curious Law reached over and scratched behind her ear. She tilted her head into his touch and the rumbling became more audible. Though her eyes were closed she almost incoherently muttered "Oooh that feels good." before she rubbed her cheek against his shoulder getting more comfortable. Interesting. Law thought. Not only did his newest crew member purr but she could fall asleep on him, meaning she felt comfortable and safe enough to do so. Law decided that he would let the girl sleep for now. He too closed his eyes and fell asleep.

What he didn't see was two people peeking through the circular window of the door that opened to the deck. Their hats would have given them away had their captain not been asleep.

"I didn't know Captain did cute." Shachi hissed at Penguin who was studying the trio.

"He doesn't." Cute wasn't a word that could be used to describe their captain. But it could definitely be used to define what they were looking at. His cheek rested on the top of Vivian's head, she was curled into his side in a tight ball and of course snoozing behind those two was Bepo, how was unaware of what was going on.

"Is that what you consider a cat nap?"

"Maybe for Vivian." Captain wasn't a cat and Bepo was a bear.

"We should take a picture!" Shachi exclaimed a bit too loudly. Nervously both boys looked to see if they had to run, only to see Bepo stir a little before becoming still once again.

Both boys let out a breath of relief and Penguin answered Shachi's question with a question. "Do you even have a camera?"

He paused, and had to think about it a few seconds before he was able to answer. "Don't think so."

"Then we can't take a picture."

"Aww, that sucks." Shachi pouted then returned his gaze to the captain. "Hey, do you think they're going to get together?"

Penguin shrugged "You never know. She's not exactly the most predictable person out there."

"Got that right, snugglin' up with Captain like that. He'd kill us if we did that."

"You act like you want to." Penguin said. Shachi began protesting when he turned away from the door and the mechanic. "Whatever they do or don't do is up to them." With that he walked off. If the conversation had been allowed to go on any farther if would have gotten quite awkward, which is why Penguin chose to end it before it got to that point.

Vivian opened her eyes slowly and rubbed the sleep that had begun to form at the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand. Remembering that the last thing she had done was get scratched behind the ears by her captain, her head on his shoulder. Upon remembering that she jerked her head up and releasing the arm she had both of hers had been so tightly wrapped around.

Law was rudely awoken form his pleasant nap when his head was forced up and then snapped down because his pillow had decided to move on him. He opened his eyes to glare at the cause of him being woken up only to meet Vivian's slightly guilty looking eyes. "Miss Vivian-"

"Sir, I've informed you many times that you're supposed to call me Vivian, just Vivian."

"Yes, well I was quite enjoying my nap."

"I'm sorry." She said but didn't look away from him. "I mean is it even allowed for me to fall asleep against my captain?"

"When we're both asleep, yes. I'd move you if I had a problem, or a desire to move you off of me. And next time you wake up, don't move."

She gave him a weird look and slowly asked "Are you implying that there will be a next time?"

Law shrugged and stood up. "We'll find out." With those words he went back into the sub, leaving Vivian and a still Sleeping Bepo on the deck.

She turned to Bepo and looked at him before lifting her hand to the ear he had scratched before their cat nap together. It had been a long while since someone had done that to her and dear god she had long since forgotten how good it felt. "Bepo, I fear that our captain is a very unfair man." She told the sleeping bear. The only response she got was a snore. "He's also a very confusing man too." She said chewing the inside of her lip and decided not to explain herself to the bear, it's not like he was awake to listen to her anyway. One of the things that made her say this to the bear though was the fact that Law hadn't done anything to her, no insane tests no experiments, no nothing. He just let her do her thing whenever she wanted. Of corse there were rules she had to abide by like every other crewmember on the sub. "But he's a pretty kind man too. Quite a sarcastic one at that." She said with a smile playing on her lips. She then reached up and scratched behind the bears cute ears as law had done to her before she pushed herself to her feet.

They soon docked on an island that had been their destination for the last few weeks. "Law." Vivian said as she looked up at him. "Do I have to wear that?" She scrunched her nose up as she pointed with distaste at what all of his crew wore. The only variation was Bepo, who had an orange one. She wanted new clothes but if she had to wear that thing there was no point of doing so. Law simply shrugged one shoulder. Did he not care!? "Well white clothes and water don't mix well. Plus white and my skin tone don't work either. And that thing is ugly. No wonder you don't have any other female members, I mean it's a deal breaker."

"Well Miss Vivian I wasn't aware that you were planning to spend time in the water." He smirked at her and at that instant she knew that he knew about her deathly fear of water. Dread filled her, he was a pirate, a powerful one at that and her captain, and he knew her fear, that itself was something to fear.


	7. Shopping

"I-I'm not." It unnerved her that with such few words and one single smug smirk the man she had felt so comfortable with just a few hours ago with could invoke such fear within her.

"That's a shame. Swimming is such fun."

"Oh and you would know?" She growled at him, none to happy with the fear and dread this man was causing her. He didn't take the bait though; he didn't even respond or allow Vivian the satisfaction of having gotten him. She paused and returned to the original question. "So do I have to wear it or can I have some money?"

"Here." Law agreed easily enough handing her a small bag of beli.

"Thanks." She considered hugging him after he dropped the black drawstring pouch into her hands. But that's as far as the thought went. She turned around and as she passed Penguin, snagged her nails on the fabric of his white sleeve and dragged him away with her.

Why me? Penguin thought as he offered thoughts and opinions to the clothing Vivian held up to her body or pulled off the rack. There were mostly jeans and short sleeves along with a few sweaters, pairs of gloves, socks, tank tops and normal t-shirts in the pile accumulating in his arms. Of corse there might have been a few pairs of shoes hidden somewhere in the pile too, but he wasn't sure. And of corse the girl wasn't done, nor had she tried anything on yet!

Note to self, he thought to himself as another three shirts were added to his arms. Never, under any circumstances go clothes shopping with Vivian ever again!

Then something occurred to him, maybe he shouldn't participate or cooperate with her.

"I'm ready to try all this stuff on. This way Penguin." With that he saw the light at the end of the excruciatingly loooong dark tunnel, they were almost done! She collected the clothing from him arms and entered a little room with a bench and a mirror. He in turn collapsed into a chair inside the room, but not in one of the stalls. "What do you think about this one?" She asked stepping out in a pair of dark jeans and a deep wine red colored V-neck. They made her skin and hair looked far paler then he had realized they were and it made her tail stick out like a sore thumb.

Penguin shook his head, deciding that he'd try and be helpful. "Too dark. The red looks good though."

"Lighter jeans? So these ones are a no?" She looked down with a thoughtful expression then back at him. "Alright, thanks." with that she returned to the small room.

Penguin hung his head, that light was only the on coming sea train.

This process went on for white a long time. Until they had whittled the mound down to a few shirts, pants and shoes. "Not yet." Vivian said. Instead of letting him go to the front of the store, and out of the doors, she dragged him back to the back where lacy, silky . . . things hung. They didn't look as though they'd cover what they might have been made to cover. He felt his face heat up, he shouldn't be back here. And then Vivian asked "Which one, stripes?" As she asked this she held up a purple and black plaid set. "Or polka dots?" She held up the other options with polka dots on it.

"I-I . . . u-um . . . . . Vivian." Me managed trying not to imagine the girl in either set she held in her hands.

"Yes Penguin?" she asked as though she didn't know what was wrong with him.

"I-I don't think- I shouldn't b-be here." That sea train had run him over. Penguin was very uncomfortable.

"Sure you are. Don't go anywhere." With that she put the plaid one on top of the small pile he held. His face got hotter. The same thing went on for about another hour before she began walking thought the store, towards the front doors and cash register. He thought Vivian was finally done. That was until she took him back to the dressing rooms. A few minutes later she opened the door and stepped out in a top that was a loose gold colored thing with no straps and only covered the space around her chest and around her back that needed to be covered, the bottoms were black extremely short shorts with a gold trim, saying "I wasn't too sure about this one. What do you think?"

"W-who are you shopping for?" Penguin asked. All that thing was missing was the Heart Pirate jolly roger. He was becoming concerned, especially with the color choice; surely there were other options for her to choose from, why gold and black?

"Me. So is this ok or not?" He nodded. Oh how he didn't want to be in this predicament. She went back into the dressing room and continued to ask for his opinion of the lingerie she had chosen. "Ok, now we're done." She finally said. Thank god! Penguin hadn't known that shopping was so hard or exhausting. But when he looked at Vivian though, she was beaming and skipping at a pace to match his walking speed, swinging the one plastic bag she was carrying as she did so. "Thank you so much Penguin." What do you want to do? We still have some money left."

"Sleep." all he wanted to do was to collapse in the nearest bed and fall into sleep until it was time to move onto the next island.

"Oh, that's boring."

"Sorry." He reached over and ruffled her hair then smiled at her. He didn't mind too much, just as long as he didn't have to ever do that again. Ever.

"Here ya go." She returned the few extra beli they had to Law and discovered that they had rented an entire hotel.

"You have extra?" He asked with an arched eyebrow looking just a bit surprised and . . . was he a little impressed too?

Vivian wondered as she asked "Surprised? I can show a bit of restraint." With that she found an unoccupied room. She wouldn't mind sharing with Bepo; he was a bear after all. Or Penguin, but he was her best friend- or something like that. But that was all; Vivian wasn't willing to share with anyone else.

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The next few chapters were really hard for me to write on paper (unlike this chapter that seemingly had no thing to do with anything) But yeah . . . as always read enjoy and review.


	8. Fear

I really hope these next few chapters are easier for you to read then it was for me to write. I write everything in a notebook first and more then half of the page on most of the pages here recently have been scribbled out. Paragraphs have been erased and I've faced that evil thing called writers block even though I knew what I was planning to do. Or getting from point A to point B with the characters somewhat in tact. *sigh* well I hope I did a decent job.

Now I'll let us get on with Vivian and Law's lives.

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A week later, they were headed to the docks, the log pose had finally set and they were ready to go. Her, Shachi and Penguin had all enjoyed a relaxing lunch before their departure with the island that Law had told them would be a bit past three.

"Heart Pirates, surrender now. We have you surrounded." Someone said, cutting off Shachi's response to what Vivian had been saying. All of their smiles disappeared.

Vivian looked at the other Heart Pirates and whispered, "What do we do?"

"Fight them, and get back to the sub ASAP." Penguin whispered back to her.

"But they have guns." And pointy things, but she didn't add that part. She was scared, who wanted to be shot? Plus they were surrounded- as previously pointed out by the marines.

"On three ok." It wasn't a question at all. Meaning she couldn't disagree with them. It wasn't as though they were giving her time to disagree either way. The plan was obvious, break at three, run like the wind try not to get injured and make it back to the sub on your own.

"If I get fatally wounded will you guys drag my sorry ass back to Law?"

"Sure." They both instantly agreed in unison.

"One." Penguin whispered.

"Two." Shachi whispered.

"THREE!" They all shouted out, running in three different directions as they did so. She ran straight towards the line of marines, all she had to do was break though it and run like hell, as if her father was behind her. When she reached the line, of people, she tried just pushing and shoving but when their hands and knives came towards her she began clawing at them. Her nails caught the skin besides a guys eye and she raked her nails across the bridge of his nose to the other side. He fell with a scream, nowhere close to dead, but now more likely then not, blind. She might have felt bad had she not been fighting for her life. Vivian was kicking clawing; biting, punching and elbowing, all that was a simple struggle to break free from the torrents she had thrown herself into. Finally she shook the last one free, she ran towards the dock and therefore the sub, like a bat out of hell; if only she could fly. They shot at her, and boy they had bad aim. They were all missing her.

From a top the small crest of a hill, she saw the familiar yellow sub begin to sink slowly down into the water, inch by inch. And she was still so far from it. Vivian pushed herself harder, into over drive. She had to make it to the deck no matter what.

She began yelling, screaming desperately as loud as she could until her voice was hoarse, and she could hardly wheeze out the words. Did anyone hear her?

At this point, she was at the dock and she still was still so far! Her heart sunk as the first bit of water quietly lapped over the lower deck. She began tripping over her fight, only slowing herself down as tears blurred her vision as she tried shouting once more.

Come on. Shachi silently urged the stumbling girl. If she didn't hurry up then she was going to be left behind. She was so far, yet so close. He stood at the door, waiting to throw it open, grab her, pull her in and then slam it closed. But she had to make it to the door first. And the water was rising fast.

She reached the edge of the docks, closed her eyes and on the last step before the dock ended, she jumped. Obviously not thinking about when she would land. Her feet the deck and the water reached her knees. She kept her eyes closed as she ran a few steps forwards. And Vivian was doing good until she opened her blue eyes. The reaction was instant. She stopped dead in her tracks. The water lapped gently at her thighs now, slowly climbing higher. All Vivian could do was wrap her arms around herself and squeeze her eyes shut. Maybe if she thought about something else she could forget that she was surrounded by seawater. All she could feel was her head being pushed under the water, struggling for breath as it eagerly left her mouth and lungs. "Someone help." She whimpered repeatedly into the empty air. Someone, anyone, it didn't matter. Her breath was shallow and irregular and it wasn't from her running to the sub. Even if Vivian wanted to move, she couldn't. It was if the memory and the water had paralyzed different parts of her. The water was now at her waist and was still climbing higher. Soon it would cover her and the currents would sweep her away, off the deck, the only solid thing she was somewhat aware of. 'Please' she silently begged, her knees collapsing beneath her as if all of her strength had been drained from her.

An arm slid around her waist, catching her. Vivian turned into the person's side, pressing her face into the dry fabric of their chest and clinging tightly to them as though they were more then just a lifeline. Inch by inch they made progress towards the door. "Come on Vivian, stop making this so hard." A voice grunted as she clung so tightly to them that they were afraid she'd squeeze the live right out of them. Their slow movements stopped and the person began trying to pry her fingers out of the fabric. "Let go." The voice commanded. He was going to have to get Law to bandage him after they got safely inside the sub, where they needed to be.

Somehow, he moved the silently crying girl to his back and was walking towards the door. Vivian had her face now pressed into the back of his neck and her arms formed a noose around his neck, choking him to death. He quickly opened the door, went through the slightly open door and slammed it shut, cutting off the flow of water into the sub. That was going to be a pain to clean up later. He thought hoping he wouldn't have to be the one to do it.

The girl on his back slid off and he turned around to look at her .Vivian looked pathetic. She was on her knees, doubled over her arms wrapped around her body tightly and her body was shaking.

Shachi knelt down and said as he rubbed her rounded back "It's ok. You're safe now." There was no reaction to his words other then loud, sobs. Yikes! Now she was sobbing even harder! What was he supposed to do? "I-I'm going to get Captain." He stammered, surely he would know what to do. Shachi thought as he stood and ran off to find Captain. He finally found the man, offered the exclamation other then 'it's Vivian' before dragging him out of his room by Shachi. They came to a stop in near the girl before Shachi said, "I don't know what to do captain." If he did, he'd have done it already.


	9. What happened is

I just recently discovered Law's age. Does anyone else know it? Well if you don't, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Pre time skip: 24

So post time skip u add 2 years and of corse get 26.

Oh, I found out Kidd's too! (Random I know but Law and Kidd go together.) You almost always hear of those two characters so I'll throw his age out there too.

Pre time skip: 21

Post time skip: 23

Anyone want to know Vivian's I'll post it if you ask. (And I was prepared for her to be over 20 cuz even though I didn't know his age when I first started, there was no way he was younger then Ace . . . who's 20) Anyone want to guess her age? J

And before I go, I want to give a big thanks to Seachell13 for making me think up her past and therefore most of this fanfic.

That is all for now. I hope author notes don't bother you.

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He walked forwards and then crouched down and with a straight face, in all seriousness said, "So it appears that you're actually spent some time in the water Miss Vivian."

"Uh Captain, not to criticize your methods," Shachi cut in timidly. "But I don't think that's going to help her." He didn't know what would help, but that certainly wasn't how you were supposed to handle a sobbing girl. "What's wrong with her?" Maybe Captain could tell Shachi that much.

"It appears that her fear of water is beyond crippling." He knew it was a fear of her's, but by the looks of things, there was so much more to it. "Vivian, can you hear me?" He quietly asked, hoping that she wasn't too far gone at the moment. There was a movement of her head, so he took that as a 'yes' and continued on. "Can you tell me what's wrong?" Besides the obvious. He added in his thoughts. She shook her head, it was a distinctive no. "Then I cannot help you Vivian." in order for me to do so I need for you to tell me what is wrong." Law dropped his voice so that it was low and steady. He didn't know how to handle hysterical girls any better then the next guy on his sub, but he was doing better then his mechanic. "Can you do that for me?" Vivian nodded with some whimpering sounds that couldn't be described as the answer. Thank god, she was nodding too. Thankfully, Law managed to grasp her answer. "Would you like to go elsewhere?" He asked offering her his hand. Law watched as her arms slowly loosened around herself and she just a little bit faster looked up at him with large scared and watery eyes. Slowly, like the sun moving across the sky, Vivian reached one small, pale and delicate hand tipped with sharp dangerous claws and placed it in his. She was trembling and tears had streaked down her cheeks and had even slipped down her neck. With her hand in his Law stood and then pulled the girl to her feet too.

Once on her own two feet she fell forwards into him. They made some progress, from the floor to a standing position. He wondered how long it was going to take to move to a different location. At this rate however, it would take a very long while. She pressed her face into his chest, her arms snaking around his body, clutching fistfuls of his hoodie and back. Later if Law were to look, he'd see holes and small scabs on his back from where she had held onto him. She did nothing but sniffle, and try to get her sobs under control. For a few minutes, he let her do this as he rubbed her back.

"Come on." He said as he reached around himself to grab her arms and somehow successfully manage to pry her off of him to the point in which they could walk to the privacy of his room. "Tell me what you're so scared of." He encouraged as they sat on his bed, the only place in the room to sit besides the floor. It was a question. Law didn't believe that water created such a powerful effect.

"H-him." She whimpered, clinging to Law once more, her nails again digging into the flesh of his back.

"Who is 'him'?" Of corse, the problem was 'him'. At least Law knew that he wasn't the 'him' Vivian had been. She shook her head, as if she planned on no longer answering his questions. And Law had just gotten started. He leaned closer to Vivian's ear and whispered "I need you to cooperate with me if we're going to take care of your fear." he then pulled away to gauge her reaction.

"T-take care of it? You c-can't do that." She sobbed pulling her face away from his chest.

"Why can't I?" 'Him' was only human, meaning that he was mortal and therefore could be taken care of easily. Humans were such fragile creatures after all. So easily broken and tortured. The simplest things could put them in pain, Law would know.

Law couldn't have on of his crew so scared that she couldn't move. She could hardly coherently talk as it was now. It they couldn't take care of her paralyzing fear it might make her useless to him and the crew when they really truly needed her.

"B-b-because," She stammered before truly realizing her mistake. "I-it's not y-you, o-o-or your inability t-to take care of him." She gasped.

That was good to know. Law thought to himself. "Then I don't see the problem. I want you to tell me who 'him' is. Is it someone you were in an intimate relationship with?" And thus began the guessing game. Because Vivian wasn't helping much, he was going to have to pull the answered out of her one way or another. She obviously wasn't going to directly tell him unless he asked in first, just like when they first met.

"Never!" She shouted almost instantly, pulling away only to glare almost evilly at him. "The last woman who had an intimate relationship with him had a devil fruit shoved down her throat when she was pregnant and then met her end several years later! And that's just- ew!" she shuddered while she made a disgusted expression.

"You're brother, Or was it your another family perhaps?" Law inquired trying not to laugh at her expression. He was hoping that she'd verify exactly who it was even though he was almost sure he already knew the answer. Looks like she was recovering if only just a tiny bit. She clamped her mouth shut lowering her eyes to her ands that fingered the hem of her shirt. But Vivian's lack of words was as good as a verbal answer. "Cousin or uncle?" He asked becoming more specific, again trying to draw answers out of the girl. "No? Then perhaps your father?" With a pathetic whimpering noise, she wrapped her arms around herself again and rocked slightly back and forth as if trying to comfort herself. "What did he do to you?" Law asked. There were a lot of possibilities, but none of the ones Law could think of or name centered around water.

"Please don't." She begged fresh tears slipping down her cheeks. She didn't want to relive that memory that was like a festering wound, having only been just recently reopened.

"I need you to tell me." Law whispered dangerously. The circles they were going in were growing old, wearing down his usually thin patience.

"D-drowned." She whimpered. Only in the back of her mind was she slightly worried that he might do something similar to her, laugh at her or somehow use this against her later on. "H-he pushed my head under t-the water in the tub a-a-and he h-held me there." A hand rubbed circles on her back as an arm held her close. She had gone back to clinging tightly to him. Vivian was sure that he didn't know how comforting just being here - simply letting her cry on him, letting her cling to him in her pathetic weak state, really was. It was far beyond the narrow range of what words could express.

"Are you afraid we'll do that to you?" She was asked after a long stretch of silence.

In her opinion, he asked the wrong question. He should have asked her 'why are you alive if you were drowned?' Because she had died, she had felt herself die- it's an unpleasant feeling. Yet here she was very much alive. She shook her head no. Vivian had complete and utter trust that no one in the sub would try to do that to her. After all Shachi had the perfect chance, Penguin was her best friend, Bepo had no reason to. So that left Law, who could choose other methods to kill her. Plus Vivian never took baths anymore.

That's good. Law was pleased to discover that she didn't think so lowly of them that they'd try to drown her in her bath. "Don't worry anymore Vivian." he quietly whispered to her, there was an underlining edge to his voice that was very hard to detect.

She didn't respond and when he looked down, he realized why. It wasn't her refusing to respond, rather she couldn't respond anymore.

If they ever came across this guy, he would never be able to tell the tale of the day he met Trafalgar Law.

His heartbeat and the slow rhythmic circles on her back had lulled the exhausted cat girl to sleep in his arms. She felt relieved after she ha told Law what had happened seven years ago. When she woke up she was surprised to find that she was still in Law's room, and for some reason even more surprised to find the man sleeping right there next to her. Vivian leaned over Law, kissed him on the forehead whispering the words "Thanks captain." before she threw the covers, back only to have almost icy cold air hit her. Only half awake she decided that it was too cold for her to get out of the bed. So Vivian lay back down and curled into Law-he was so warm. And fell soundly back to sleep.


	10. What is this

"Hello Shachi." she said smiling sweetly. It wasn't every day that she saw him down here in the control room. "Are you ok?" She asked. He had one hand on the door frame and the other on his knee and was breathing heavily.

He nodded and straightened up. "C-captain needs to see you."

Vivian frowned "Oh, ok. Thank you for being his errand boy." With that she nervously began the walk to his office.

The news paper was dropped on his desk in front on him. Law thanked his subordinate and opened the paper only for a piece of paper to flutter to the ground besides his feet. He leaned down, picked it up and slowly straightened so that his elbows rested on his desk. With a smile he examined it. Fifteen million, not too bad of a starting bounty.

Shachi came in for whatever reason, so Law sent him to go find Vivian so that they could have a little talk. He told Shachi to be fast about it too, he didn't want to wait all day. And god only knew his mechanic would take his sweet time finding the cat girl if he wasn't told to be quick about it.

"Y-you wanted to see me?" A nervous voice asked as a head of white blonde poked into the room, peeking at him from behind the door.

He laughed at her shy timid ness. "Yes, some in here please Miss Vivian."

"Sir, am I in trouble?" She asked, not correcting him for saying miss immediately after the word sir, like she usually did. She stepped in so that her entire body was in the room, but she was no closer to him then before.

"I want you to tell me what this is." He turned the paper so that it was upside down to him, but right side up for her and slid it to the edge of his desk.

She crept forwards and examined it for a total of two seconds before saying "A wanted poster."

"And what does the said wanted poster read?" He prodded.

"Wanted dead or alive Heart Tigress, fifteen million beli." She read the paper, but had no reactions what's so ever.

"That's correct. Now tell me when this happened." the picture was of her running, looking over her shoulder right at the camera, which had zoomed in on her face. It was evident that the marines didn't know her name so they made something up, Heart Tigress to be exact.

"When we- well- last Thursday."

"I'm assuming that's why you were late." The marines sure killed no time when it came to her bounty, she must have done some damage along with simply being associated with the heart pirates.

"Yes sir. They surrounded us when we were walking home. So we decided to scatter, each man for himself. A-are you mad?" She peeked up at him through her eyelashes, not moving her head to look up at him.

"Not at all." No, he was actually proud of her.

They were once again surfaced, and Vivian and Law were quite comfortable against his first mate, who was sleeping soundly. Vivian had her head in Law's lap, her eyes half open, the rays of the warm sun warming her skin almost to the point of making her uncomfortable. A content purr could be heard the moment one stepped outside and onto the deck as law absentmindedly scratched behind her ear. His eyes were closed- drifting somewhere between conscious and not.

"Captain?" A voice said. "Captain." The voice repeated itself until they finally got a response from his captain. It wasn't much of a reaction, just him opening one eye like he seemed so fond of doing. "There's a small vessel following us. It's been silently following us for the last few days." Penguin didn't admit that it had been following them longer, and had just now had the mind to tell Captain.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Irritation thick in his voice. Such a trivial thing had interrupted his nap.

"I wasn't sure at first-"

"Are you sure now?"

"No." Penguin confirmed. "But what do you want me to do about it?"

"What kind of vessel is it?" his answer wasn't going to depend on Penguins answer, but he still wanted to see what his navigator had to say.

"It's unmarked. Not a marine or navy ship and it's not another pirate ship."

Vivian stretched and readjusted herself. There was no way the 'small vessel' was who the mean voice of paranoia and fear was telling her that it was. After all he was still back in the west blue hiring idiot assassins to kill her. None of them had succeeded yet, well one of them might have- maybe. "Don't worry about it Law." She mumbled, closing her eyes again. She knew that they were less then a day away from docking on the next island, so why not let the poor sucker who the Heart Pirates navigator thought was following them, go?

"Only unless they become a problem, if they do sink them. Got it Penguin?" Law told him.

"Um . . . Alright Captain." He didn't think that was the best idea ever but he was going to obey his orders.

"Hey, would you call an unidentified sailing ship a USS?"

"Shut up." Law grumbled hoping that Vivian wasn't trying to be funny in her half awake state of mind. Unfortunately he was unable to fall asleep or return to that half conscious state of mind he had been in previously.

Only a few hours remained until they reached the next island. Nothing occurred during those few hours until they were getting off the sub. Law stopped Vivian with a smirk before she could hop onto the deck like the rest of his crew had, saying "You're a wanted woman, keep your guard up." God only knew that he wanted to lose her because she forgot that she was wanted dead or alive.

"Are you going into town too?" She asked and when he nodded his head asked another question, "Then may I accompany you?"

"Scared?" He couldn't help but childishly sneer at her.

"Just nervous, don't make fun of me." She grumbled. That little voice in the back of her head was like an annoying fly, buzzing in her ear even as she swatted it away.

"Then let's go Miss." he held his elbow out to Vivian, who dubiously complied, allowing Law to be the gentleman he could sometimes be.

"Yes sir, let's go. Though I'd prefer it if you could call me Vivian, just Vivian sir." She could play his polite games too.

The log pose only took a few hours to set on this island. It was rather bland for being on the grand line. It was a blazing hot summer island with red rock galore. All the buildings were made out of the rock, in the crevasses between the high raising cliff faces that towered above them, creating a small bit of shade. The red dust beneath their feet had coated their shoes in red dust as it was kicked up as they walked arm in arm. They spent a few hours looking at medical supplies, seeing if there was anything new and exciting that Law didn't have, or some books that he wanted. But once he was satisfied that there was nothing in the field of science that he wanted the settled for wasting time with Vivian, who was dragging her feet at this point. They did nothing important after that, just walked around, talking and laughing- well it was mostly Vivian who talked and mostly law who laughed at his cat girl companion. Both of them ignored the stared they were getting, whether it was because they recognized one or both of them from wanted posters or if it were Vivian's ears and tail, neither knew and neither cared.

Now they were on their way back to the docks where their yellow submarine was, the only one of its kind obviously. Call it sixth sense, but something was wrong. Vivian didn't let it show though because she was in the company of Law. Not only would she get a lot of crap for being afraid, but he was also her Captain, meaning he had to be able to fight well enough to keep both of them safe, not that she'd depend on his help. So looking up at Law she asked "You look grumpy, why?" Sweat poured off of him, drenched his hoodie and his hat was limp. She wasn't in much better condition but it didn't show as much, plus there wasn't a huge frown on her face, or the words if anyone bothers me I'm going to kill them stamped on what part of his face was visible.

"I'll be happy when we come across a winter island." Even though he had been laughing at her, he hadn't said much so much of their conversations were one sided and even Vivian could tell he just wanted to get out of here.

"Why is that?"

"You might not know this Vivian, but I'm from the North Blue."

"Oh you are? Well that explains a lot. Like the furry hat and your talking walking polar bear first mate- maybe."

"I always have methods to my madness." He said with a slight upturn of the deep from on his face, but it couldn't be described as a smile when it brought the frown to a straight face.

"Are you sure abou-" Vivian stopped as they stepped onto the deck. "L-Law." She whimpered as a mad caught sight of them and stood. He had been resting in a relaxed manner, very much like law did against Bepo, but against the mast. He had black hair that was slicked back away from strikingly blue eyes. They were darker then Vivian's, more narrow and much colder.

Whoo! Ten chapters. . . Is that much of an accomplishment?! *calms down a bit* I guess not. But I'm going to pat myself on the back, smile happily, keep tying and thanks everyone who's following and who has reviewed. J


	11. Heartbeats

"What is it Vivian?" Law asked, already knowing who the approaching man was.

"Please, I don't care what you do, just get rid of him." She squeaked clutching the fistfuls of his hoodie that she had balled tightly in her hands on his side and back even more tightly then before.

Law looked at the man and said in an even tone that might have scared Vivian into submission had she not already scared to death as she cowered behind Law. "I don't appreciate you scaring my subordinate."

The man coolly laughed, throwing his head back "I don't enjoy my daughter being alive after I've killed her with my own two hands."

"What a shame. Do you want her back?" Law asked. Both men heard the cowering cat girl let out a strangled cry of sorts.

"Very much thank you."

"I do believe I'll keep Vivian. Such an intelligent and interesting girl has better things to be then dead." Law coolly responded, his displeasure of the man showing in his voice but nothing else.

"I see. So you've become his whore." The man sneered at his daughter laughing as she ducked behind the man with the goatee, fuzzy hat and tattoos that was standing before him.

Law ignored the comment obviously not aimed directly at him and said "As much as I dislike taking orders, my subordinate has asked me to get rid of you and you're boring me. In addition to that you're trespassing on my submarine. So I'm sorry I will not be handing Miss Vivian over to you." The trespassing comment didn't seem relevant to the conversation or situation at hand, but this was Law's 'ship' and he didn't appreciate unwelcome strangers, let alone strangers who reduced the Heart Tigress to the whimpering, cowering mess she had become. "So I'll ask you once and only once to get off my submarine." Somehow he was able to say those words with a straight face and a dead serious tone.

"And if I don't Mr. Trafalgar?" He sneered, boasting confidence that Law hadn't seen since he last saw Eustass Kidd.

Law looked over his shoulder at Vivian and asked "Would you like to repay this bastard for what he's done to you?"

Vivian peeked above his shoulder to see the all familiar sharp features, cold eyes and strong hands. If he touched her his hands would be rough and calloused. She shuddered, the ghost of those hands still lingered on her skin, raising goose bumps along her arms. Even though fear screamed no, to get the hell out of there, the two little voices of comfort and vengeance argued loudly against the loudest voice in her head. Would she ever! Thought letting her kill him was far too kind, she'd rather Law let her kill him herself. He hadn't ceased to torment her even after she had run away from home seven years ago. Whether it be in her dreams or by paying off people to attack her wherever she went. "Y-yes please." She barley managed to squeak out.

Law smiled, almost gleefully at her. He planned on enjoying the show. He wrapped his arms around the girl's shoulders, bringing her to a stop at his side. "Room." He said in a loud clear voice so their enemy and Vivian's demon could hear him, so if they knew about his devil fruit power would know what was about to come. A blue ring formed below his hand, too close to Vivian's collar bone for her comfort. She squirmed below his arm as the ring turned into a dome covering the deck of the sub and then some.

"We are so late." Penguin muttered. He wouldn't be surprised if Captain had already left without them- them being Shachi and Bepo- who was absolutely dieing on this island. The boys were dieing and they didn't have heavy fur coast covering every inch of their bodies like their bear companion did. Penguin felt bad for the polar bear. It had been hard enough to get the bear out of the comfort of air-conditioning.

"Is that-" Bepo asked pointing at the rounded curve of a glowing blue dome, visible just over the tips of the buildings on the outskirts of the town before they entered the crevice the town was built in.

"Defiantly, but that's where our sub is." With that they raced to the docks, all except the polar bear who trudged back slowly, imagining snow cover banks, ice and below zero temperatures. They had better come across a winter island soon.

Penguin and Shachi stopped at the side of the sub. "Do you think it's safe?" Shachi didn't see any marines or any sign of them, or any reason that Captain would need to be using his devil fruit power.

"Of corse not stupid." Penguin shouted at him, hitting him in the back on the head. With that they sat down, waiting for the glow and dome to disappear. That's when it would be safe. . . Maybe.

Law put his free hand down over Vivian's chest, over her heart, muttered an apology before swapping her with the man known as her father. Instantly, before he could realize they had swapped places Law put his open palm on his chest and muttered the word 'mes'. Out of his back flew a cube that Law caught with the arm he had dropped from the mans shoulders. He then returned the man to his original place, returning Vivian back to her place next to him.

Handing her the mans heart was like giving Snow White the poisoned apple, or the genie giving a greedy man three wishes. Vivian thought as the small cube was placed in her hands.

Was this his heart? Vivian wondered, giving it a testing squeeze, sending the now paralyzed man to his knees, his hands over the whole in his chest screaming. Vivian couldn't help but laugh at the control she now had over this man, the one who had terrorized her since she was a little girl. "Karma's a bitch." She growled.

"Give me . . . My . . . H-heart . . . Back." He growled back at his daughter in short pants. "Goddamned whore." He knew that he had to get that cube, his heart back or else he was as good as dead. But did he regret anything he had done, did he wish he had a second chance, or even try to beg for forgiveness? No, the man did none of these things. He was only poking the festering wound that the sight of him had reopened.

Vivian smiled despite her visible shaking. Was she scared? Hell yes, but Law was with her and he held her fathers heart in her hands. "It truly sucks to be you right now. I have your heart, and I'm not returning it." She wasn't the stupid fool he may have thought she was.

"Bitch I'll-"

She squeezed it, silencing him after a loud scream. "I wasn't done." She said with a dangerous smile.

"If your mother was here she'd tell you to give me my heart back." He tried to coax her into her handing him that cube.

She laughed with disbelief "You're the fucking kisser and the killer!" she whispered, her confidence visibly wavering.

The man saw this and knew that with the right words she would break soon. But he wasn't the only one who saw this. Unfortunately for him Law beat him to speaking "Vivian, I hate to rush this heart warming reunion, but hurry up."

"Oh, right." She turned to look at Law. He was serious, and then turned back to her father. "You know, I think I will in fact return your heart to you." What she wanted to do was to do was what he had done to her when he had killed her mother before her very eyes. She walked over to him and pressed the cube back into the hole in his chest. He began boasting about how she had such a weak will and couldn't even carry out her death threat even after all of the bad things he had done to her and her mother. Half way through a sentence he coughed, blood splattering on her wrist, his eyes wide as he tasted the blood. When he looked down he saw his daughters hand a little more then wrist deep in his chest.

"You fucking bitch." He gasped before choking on blood before she ripped her hand out of his chest. She was surprised to see that the still pulsing tissue that was bright red with oxygen rich blood thing called her fathers heart wasn't black cold hard or microscopic. The crimson liquid flowing off of her hand and down her arm in rivers was warm as the pulsing died slowly in her hand.

"I thought I told you, that's Karma." With that she crushed the mans heart in her hand, it was more for her entertainment and the feel of having done it, the blood splattering everywhere. He slumped forwards, no longer dieing before. He was now truly dead. She had slain one of her demons. Now dead Vivian slowly pushed herself into a standing position and went almost instinctively to Law "Thank you." With that she collapsed for no apparent reason. Maybe she passed out at the sight of so much blood Law mused. Good thing he had good reflexes. He caught her as the reset of the crew showed up on the deck.

"Who is-" Shachi asked looking between the dead man on his stomach, Law and Vivian's crimson covered hand, the color was leaking off of her hand and onto the deck, and looked like a glove to him at least.

"It doesn't matter." Penguin said. A dead man was a dead man, and that man was certainly dead.

"Get rid of the body." Law ordered and then added "We'll be submerging when you're done." With that he carried Vivian to her room.

Shachi picked up the legs, Penguin the arms. Together they carried the body over to the edge of the sub and tossed him into the ocean, arguing over who was going to do the chore of cleaning the deck; only after they had determined that of corse Vivian had been the killer. They only argued because his heart was missing and Law could do that, but her hand was covered and even dripping blood. And they agreed that they wish they had seen her do such a morbid, out of character thing.


	12. Pancakes

The next few chapters are a hell of a lot lighter and well not really fillers, but just some things that I thought were funny and would be fun to write. So read them and enjoy as always. Don't forget to review

Vivian woke up the next morning feeling better then she had ever felt for waking up so early and brightly. She headed towards the kitchen. "Hello Chef-san." She greeted happily.

"A bit early for ya don't ya think?" He asked her pausing in his work.

"But you're up." She countered, rummaging in the cupboards for something after washing her hands, arms and face in the sink.

"Ahh yes, but I've gotta make breakfast for the whole lot of ya."

"Not for Law and I." She said as pots and pans fell down around her with loud echoing crashing sounds.

"What are ya doin'?" He asked then decided to revise his question. "What do ya want?"

"Pancakes. I'm going to make Law pancakes."

Not two minutes later the utensils she needed, the exact measuring cups, mixing bowl, pan, spatula and box of old pancake mix they had was on an other wise empty counter in front of Vivian. "Thank you." Without his help she'd have never found any of the things she needed, or would be missing the bowl or pan or something or equal importance.

"Do ya want some help?" He asked, noticing how slowly she was working.

"No sir I don't." She refused any further attempts of help he offered or tried to make. Chef-san was an older, more heavy set man with dark brown hair. He probably had a name, but everyone- including herself, called him Chef-san.

"Do ya know what yer doin'?" He cautiously asked peering over her shoulder.

"No sir I don't." She almost instantly admitted with no hint of 'oh hey I shouldn't be making these by myself' in her voice as she used a whisk to mix the batter and the water.

"I'll make Captain something just in case." He muttered. God hope Captain didn't get killed because of this girls cooking. But he left her alone.

"Chef-san, do you think Law likes butter and syrup?" She stopped then and thought of something else before the man could answer the first question, was asked another. "Oh! And fruit? Do you think he likes fruit?"

"Sure kid." He answered.

"M'kay thanks." She grabbed her plate and dressed the pancakes up all nicely- if only the fruit and the butter and the syrup could hide the horrendous mess they covered.

There wasn't a doubt in Chef-san's mind that Captain would be comin' to the kitchen for some real food sooner or later.

Vivian carefully walked all the way to Law's room and went in without knocking. Luckily he wasn't dressing or undressing or wasn't fresh from a shower. He was just sleeping in his bed, the lights off. She put the knife, fork and cup of milk down on the bedside table. "Pssst Law, wake up." She hissed, shaking the shirtless man. Vivian hoped that he wasn't one of those people who slept naked. There was no response from him so she tried again. "Captain, come on I made you breakfast."

Law woke up to someone shaking him, hissing things at him and. . . . Was that pancakes he smelled? "What?" He finally grumbled rolling over to face the hissing person that was shaking him and scowl at whoever.

"I made you pancakes." A voice said, so he was right.

"For what reason?" He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, the blankets pooling around his waist.

"Do I have to have a reason to cook for you?" The person grumbled but continued just as he was about to answer that question. "Because of yesterday and what you did for me." She turned around and picked something up and thrust that something into his face.

Law pulled back and had to squint a little in the dark to see that the something was a fruity drenched in syrup nightmare looking pile of pancakes. But he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt because even in the dark she looked so excited. So carefully and slowly he cut into the top on and just as slowly lifted it to his mouth- just to torture Vivian, to watch the excitement become more and more uncontainable in her eyes. Him and his incredibly slow speed were killing her, he could tell. "Not too bad." He said. At least that one wasn't. Vivian beamed, looking proud of herself- meaning she hadn't accepted any help, which was worrisome. If he got sick who was going to take care of him? He was the doctor and he didn't trust his crew to try and take care of him. Somehow Law stomached down the burned to the core pancakes and the just barely cooked ones, and did so convincingly enough that he had Vivian fooled.

When he finished his last bite she threw her arms around him and then pulled away before taking the plate from his hands but before she closed the door behind her retreating back she paused and said "You're a good actor, don't let anyone tell you otherwise." with that she was gone, closing the door behind her.

She took the dishes back to the kitchen. "Did he like 'em?" The chef asked.

"I didn't know Law was such a good actor." Vivian told the man. She was surprised he actually ate them, and tried to look like he liked them as he did so. Law didn't strike Vivian as the type to do that. She washed the dished, cleaned up what remained of her mess then went to watch the fish from the control room.

Law leaned back in his chair; he really shouldn't have eaten those dammed pancakes. Someone needed to remind him why he had done that to begin with. He knew they were going to either make him very sick of kill him if worse came to worse. Had he done it because Vivian had made him breakfast in bed, was the dark to blame? Or was it because god only knew he didn't want to hurt her feelings. He scowled at the ceiling, his chair resting on the back two legs of its legs, his feet crossed on the edge of his desk.

"What's wrong Captain?" A voice asked, bringing Law out of his thoughts.

"I shouldn't have eaten those pancakes." He said aloud for the first time.

"Pancakes? Breakfast was eggs and ham." Bepo informed him.

Law wouldn't know because he had gone back to sleep after Vivian had left. "Yes, pancakes. Vivian made me breakfast."

"Vivian can cook?" Bepo asked, the surprise not only evident in his voice, but on his face as well.

"No." Law said. Vivian could not cook, not at all. She couldn't even make pancakes properly. Thank god she tried to doctor them up with the fruit, excessive amounts of butter and syrup, thought those three things didn't mix very well either. The room was silent for a few minutes before Law broke it saying, "Bepo."

"Yes sir?"

"Remind me to never eat anything cooked by Vivian again."

"Yes sir." Bepo agreed, wondering if her food was really that mad. Captain didn't look too good however If her were the type to moan and groan and roll around saying woe is me, woe is me, that's what he'd probably be doing right now. But Law wasn't that kind of man, so he would probably sleep it off, if worse came to it he could just empty it from his system into the ocean.


	13. Hot springs and chiligogs

"Captain we're nearing another island, the log pose only takes a few hours to set and we have no real reason to dock. What do you want to do?"

They could tell that they were nearing a winter island because of the large chunks of ice that had to be maneuvered around and the temperature drop in the sub. "Captain, please." Bepo begged.

"We're going to dock." He informed the navigator, who pumped his fist, only after he turned to leave and thought his captain wasn't looking. However, the action did not go unnoticed by Law; he simply chose to say nothing.

"SNOOOOOOOW!" Bepo cheered leaping off the sub.

"Hot springs!" Shachi and Penguin shouted racing off the sub and into the waist deep snow, clearing a path for anyone who was to go behind them.

Vivian shattered from her place next to Law, who was happy to have come across a winter island. "Cold Miss?" he asked with a knowing smirk. Of corse she was, the girl was in loose sweat pants and a tank top.

"N-n-not a-t-t-t-t a-al-all s-s-s-sir." She eventually managed to chatter a response.

"Are you sure? I'm sure we could find you something warmer for you to wear."

"I-I'm s-su-sure w-w-w-we c-can." She grumbled, not wanting to accept help form her captain.

"Come on." He said seeing that she wasn't going to move on her own. Law grabbed her wrist and pulled her inside. But of corse, she didn't have a single article of clothing for the weather. No long sleeves, no gloves, no long socks, or even things to use as layers-no nothing! So he dragged her to his room and opened his rarely used closet. He pulled out a long black jacket that pooled at the ground around her feet with the jolly roger and spots similar to the ones on his hat, in white. Then for extra measures, Law took his hat off of his head and crammed it down onto Vivian's.

"What about you?" She asked. The only change was that he no longer wore his very fuzzy and warm hat. Well that and his shirt was in fact a hoodie. The black hood had replaced his hat.

"I'm fine." He said. The cold was going to be welcome, though he wasn't going to pirouette through the snow like Bepo was currently doing.

"Fine then you can freeze." She huffed and turned to walk ahead of him, only to trip over the hem of the jacket. Vivian refused any offer of help Law made while laughing at her. She dusted herself off and had to hold the jacket up like a princess might a long gown so that she could walk. Vivian sure didn't feel like a princess.

They followed the path the crew had made and found themselves at a large hot spring. Around the entrance Bepo was dancing, throwing snow up into the air like children do fall leaves, spinning like a top and leaping around with grace a huge polar bear shouldn't have. But they let him be since he seemed to be enjoying himself.

"I'm afraid this is where we must depart Miss Vivian." Law said, feigning sadness. "Will you be ok?" He then asked in all seriousness. Hot springs were simply natural or man made pools of scorching hot water, and Vivian didn't do pools or tubs of water.

She nodded and went into the women's half of the hot springs. Law adjusted his nodachi and strolled into the men's changing room. Clothes and boiler suits were flung about and Law could only imagine the fun his crew was going to have when trying to find their own clothing. Law peeled off his shirt then slid out of his pants. Let's see how long she lasts. He thought as he padded out to the pool and slipped into the scorching water. The effects of the water were almost instantly felt. I'll give her five minutes tops.

Vivian stood at the very edge, clutching the fluffy white towel to her chest even though it didn't need her help to stay there. Her toes curled over the edge and she was the only one there.

I'm going to do it. She thought to herself, not moving an inch. I'm going to conquer this fear too. Vivian still didn't move. She almost wished someone would just come up behind her and push her in. But at the same time she knew that she'd hear their quiet footsteps creep up behind her because her ears weren't just for decoration, she'd probably kill whoever did that to her, or try to do so. The water was scorching hot, or it looked so anyway, white steam billowed up form the surface of the water. Vivian stared at the water for what felt like forever before she took a step back. Nope she wasn't going to conquer anything, not without Law. After all, he's the reason she was ever able to conquer her first fear and kill her father.

She clutched the towel even tighter to her chest with one hand and padded to the other side of the hot springs. She used her hand as a visor to limit her line of vision to the floor and her feet. At first, it was noisy, and then a few minutes later the only sound was of her padding through the small pools of water. When she stood at the edge of the other pool of water, it was dead silent. "Hello Miss Vivian." his voice was smug, as if he knew that she would be coming.

"Hello. May I- um. . . .this may- no will sound a bit weird but," She licked her lips almost nervously. "Well due to obvious gender differences may I . . . can I join you?"

"I'm not going to stop you Miss Vivian." He said. She hadn't bothered using the word sir in her response to him saying Miss Vivian.

"But is it ok?" Just because he wasn't going to stop her didn't mean that getting into a pool of scorching hot water, with no clothing on, with the opposite gender was ok.

"I won't drown you either." He added.

Well she hadn't been concerned about that until he brought it up. "Can you close your eyes?" She was taking his previous two sentences as a yes because they really couldn't be considered no and were probably meant to be comforting. Almost instantly, the entire crew turned away from Vivian. Even though she couldn't see them gawking at her, wishing that the towel wasn't there, their captain could and they'd probably get skinned alive if they didn't turn away. "Promise you won't-"

"If I wanted you dead you wouldn't be here right now." His voice grumbled the irritation in his voice very prominent and Vivian didn't fail to catch it. Vivian peeked through her fingers to see Law's grey eyes closed, then she looked around, to see all the men had their backs to her- ok good, no one was looking at her. "Any time today would be nice."

"Stop rushing me. The water is hot." She grumbled. Law bit his tongue as she slowly slipped into the water with little hisses and gasps. And then finally the word "Ok." gave him permission to open his eyes once more.

When he did so he saw Vivian's face was bright red and she was far more then arms distance away from him. "Not too scary is it?" He sneered at her.

"This is awkward." She muttered shifting her eyes away from him and the blush darkened that much more. Of corse, he had no sympathy since she chose to do this.

"Here." Law said working the red sash off of his near by nodachi and wrapped it around her eyes. "Better?" Now she didn't have to worry about getting an unwanted eye full, which is what he assumed the problem to be.

"Thanks." She muttered.

"Uh Captain." His navigator said coming up, obviously having ha hard time keeping his eyes off of Vivian, who was chin deep in the water, so he wouldn't be able to see anything anyway. "The log pose has set. It's been set for an hour."

"Tell them they have ten minutes to get back to the sub or their going to be left behind." Law said, penguin saluted him and went to relay the message, turning the had been hot steamy and calm hot spring into a mad dash to not be left behind. As he said this Vivian began making a mad, blind, would be dash to the edge. But he caught her arm and quickly said "Not you."

"But I'll be left behind." She squeaked, fear in her voice.

"No you won't." Law calmly tried to settle her down.

"I need more then ten minutes to get dried and back to the sub, I'm a girl!"

"I only said that so they don't take forever. And besides I don't think you want everyone to see you."

That had the desired effect. She stopped trying to push against him and make him loose his grip on her slick arm. "Right." Vivian stopped and waited almost calmly, closer then she wished to be to her captain with only water and less then arms distance separating them.

Someone poked their head back in and asked "You coming Captain?"

"In a few minutes." Law answered.

Penguin nodded and ran out, rejoining Shachi and talking. "What are you talking about?" Bepo asked only to get shushed as they continued their rather odd list.

"Rose petals!" Shachi declared.

"Where are we going to get those? This is a winter island."

"Oh, right." Duh. Shachi thought to himself. "We need to clean Captain's room and convince Vivian to wear some of the lingerie that she bought at your guys shopping trip." He mused only to get smacked upside the head.

"We're not doing that. Let's do a simple dinner under the stars." Penguin suggested, now if they wanted to move to Captain's room then that was up to them. "Hey Bepo, can you find a small table for two?" Bepo nodded. "Without telling captain. This is a secret." Again, the bear nodded. "Any ideas for that dinner?"

"Chilidogs!" Shachi exclaimed as if that was the best idea he had ever thought of. And he had thought it was until penguin stopped him. "What's wrong with chilidogs?" He grumbled, crossing his arms.

"A romantic dinner." Penguin emphasized the word romantic. Chilidogs were not romantic, not at all. They spent the next week planning this night.

Penguin and Shachi were acting weird- and Law was the only sane one. But whenever she mentioned this to Law, he only smiled and said "Yes, it seems my crew is plotting against us. I can't wait for their schemes to unfold." meaning that he wasn't going to be any help. And if she asked the other members, they'd change the subject or act horribly. It made her appreciate Law's acting skills. Their weird behavior went on forever, or so it seemed.

Vivian was taking a catnap in her room when someone knocked on the door. Yes?" She yawned.

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

The door opened and she was surprised to see Penguin shyly step into her room. "Hey . . . Um, do you remember that one dress you got?" He certainly did. It was the only dress she got and it had a huge slit up to her thigh and a low neckline that had made him blush.

"Yeah." She slowly drew the word out.

"Will you put it on?"

"For you?" Her brow furrowed as if she were confused as to why he was asking this of her.

"Just- I'll be waiting on the deck for you." With that, Penguin was gone, closing the door behind him. She noticed how good of a job he did of ignoring her question. Why was she dressing up for him?

While Penguin did that, Shachi guided Law up to the deck, with his arm around his shoulder, telling him how they were treating him for being the world's best captain. Shachi thought Law full heartedly believed him. But Law knew that the time had come and the plan his crew had been concocting for the last week was finally going to be unveiled. He was simply playing along.

It was night, maybe ten o'clock or so and the moon and stars were up and out. A lonesome table set for two with candles creating a trail up to the table and a candelabra alit on the tabletop were the only things on the deck. Law wasn't a stupid man, the only thing missing was a beautiful, criminally breath-taking woman, in this case, it could only be Vivian, unless one of his crewmembers decided that they wanted to cross dress and have a dinner with him like that. He didn't have long to wait, either way.

All Vivian did was put on her dress, that was all Penguin had asked her to do, besides meet him on the deck. Well she brushed her hair and slipped on a pair of shoes too. She made her way up to the deck, the shoes she had on were heels, something she had very little practice wearing. Finally, she made it to the deck, but there was no Penguin to be seen. There was however one law, sitting with his elbows on the table, chin on his interlaced fingers, hiding behind the flickering candle light. He looked quite handsome. Vivian thought before she felt herself blush as she pushed the thought away. She blinked and remembered that she was looking for Penguin, not starting at her captain's face with weird thoughts. "Have you seen Penguin? It seems that he is MIA."

Law found it humorous that Vivian didn't seem to know what was going on. "It appears that he has failed to show. Care to have a seat while you're all dressed up and waiting? It would be a shame to waste such efforts." As he said this, he gestured towards the empty chair that rested across from him.

"You weren't expecting anyone?" She lightly teased with a small smile.

"Doesn't matter if I was."

"How kind." Vivian gasped, even though she knew he was only joking in the same way he usually did. Had Law been waiting for her? How could he have known that she was going to be coming? And where was Penguin?!

"We're pirates Vivian, not saints." he bluntly told her, as if saying we're not supposed to be 'nice'. Which she supposed was a silly thing to hint at when their title said it all.

"Yes, I'm well aware." They talked and laughed well more chuckling and smirking then anything, under the stars and moon. The candles melted down and wax was overflowing, dripping down the white waxy surface of the yet to be burned candle. Soon enough two platters were placed on the table along with a wine bottle and two wine glasses. "Is this- they served us-"

"Chilidogs." Law interrupted Vivian's obvious astonishment with a laugh wondering whose idea the chilidogs were.

"How do they expect me to eat chilidogs in this?!" Vivian indignantly exclaimed. Chilidogs were delicious. . .but messy, oh so messy. And she wasn't risking the dress. It was her only one. Plus she wasn't going to be a messy eater in front of Law.

"Like this." Law piped up. As he said that, he took a bite from the chilidog, getting a long string of cheese from it. He held his other hand under it with a napkin, prepared to catch any droppings.

"Do you think this is working?" Shachi hissed.

"I don't know. It's hard to say. They're always like this."

"Maybe the wine will encourage them to-"

"Don't say it." Penguin hissed. But his mind went to the gold and black lingerie, wondering if it was actually for his captain or not.

"Move to-"

"Shachi." Penguin warmed his friend once more in a more low and threatening voice. That bottle wasn't enough to get anyone drunk. Not unless Vivian had a low, alcohol tolerance and captain let her have the bottle to herself.

"The bedroom." Shachi finished his sentence only to get punched into the opposite wall. Shachi grumbled from his place on the floor, rubbing the bump on his head from where Penguin had punched him.

"I'm sorry my pancakes nearly killed you, but I really wanted to thank you for what you did."

"And what exactly did I do for you miss Vivian? I simply gave you the opportunity, you took it."

"You helped me overcome my fears. . .both of them." Vivian muttered.

"Does that mean that you're going to plan some swimming trips and start taking baths instead of hour long showers?" Law asked, though whether or not he was serious or not was unknown to Vivian.

"Only when you do." She countered meaning only the swimming part of the question.

"How does tomorrow sound for you?" Law asked.

"Oooh I seem to be a bit busy tomorrow. How about next Thursday?" Vivian said with a wide smile.

"No good. I have got a battle with some marines."

"Oh really?" Vivian giggled, giving up on their mock planning.

"So it seems. Maybe another time."

"Yes, maybe another time." Vivian said with a smile. Even if she were to try and stop smiling like an idiot, it would still quiver on her lips, trying to break free like rays of sun on a cloudy day. So she decided not to fight it.

"Do you want to take a guess at whose idea this was?" Law suddenly asked.

"The chilidogs had to be Shachi's idea. Are they in trouble?" She should have asked that first, instead of naming names first. That's the reason the marines had gotten them the time they had almost left her behind. They had just enjoyed a chilidog lunch and weren't prepared for an attack. . . Obviously.

"We might have a talk." Law said rather slowly, obviously thinking about what he'd say to them.

"Don't hurt anybody. I'm sure they have the best of intentions." Vivian weakly tried to save her crewmates and friends from Law's wrath, which she hadn't even seen yet. It wasn't as though they were trying to kill or overthrow their captain or anything.

"Are you worried about them?" He sneered at her, smirking at her concern filled eyes.

She blushed and looked away as if she felt guilty. "Yeah."

He laughed and asked "Where would I be if I killed or harmed my navigator and mechanic, and possibly my first mate?"

Vivian thought about her answer for a good minute before saying "I don't know, sunk?" He chuckled at Vivian, she didn't get her own joke, so he let it go without enlightening her. "Do you know any constellations?" Vivian suddenly asked, tilting her head back to look at the stars. It was something she loved to see, and in the middle of the ocean was one of the best places to see them, while they were surfaced at least.

"Yes, come here." He scooted his chair back and When she nervously stood next to him, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her down onto his lap, and once she was there he put his hand on her forehead and pressed her head back onto his shoulder so that she was looking straight up. The then pointed out a few simply constellations that he had learned as a kid. Vivian in turn pointed out a few that she knew with a smile. It was nice to share something as simple as stargazing with her captain. She tried to suppress a yawn and thought she had succeeded when a voice hissed into her ear "Tired?"

"No." She managed thought a yawn, trying to deny it still. If she said yes, the night would probably end.

"Sure you aren't." he said, she could feel his smirk grazing her ear. If she turned her head, she could kiss him. Both the thought and the smirk sent shivers through her body, ones Law didn't fail to notice. "Now you're cold too?" He inquired.

"N-no, not cold." Definitely not cold.

"But you're tired." He pressed.

"Shut up."

"Why bother lying when you're so bad at it?"

"Because I don't- I hope this doesn't sound weird or anything but. . . I don't want- I've had a lot of fun tonight. So I - well I wish it wouldn't," She felt her face heat up, glad the she wasn't facing the man's whose lap she was sitting on and relieved that he couldn't see her.", end." Vivian finished, feeling rather stupid. She wanted to get up and go to her room. But at the same time, Law's lap was a very comfortable place for her. His arms wrapped her in warmth and his shoulder was the perfect height for her to rest her head on.

"The night will end when the sun rises, that is inevitable." Law said.

"Just a bit longer." She yawned yet again. "Don't make me go to bed yet."

Law chuckled and quietly agreed. He was enjoying himself as well. Their speech slowed down and eventually stopped as Vivian nodded off. The east horizon was beginning to turn the black star-studded sky into a dusty grey as law stood, Vivian in his arms. When he opened the door into the sub he startled his had been sleeping against each other navigator and mechanic, who leapt up when they saw him. He smiled at them and said "We had a good night boys. Good job." And with that, he left his crew in shock as he took Vivian to her room.

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Ok so this chapter was originally supposed to be two . . . But because I screwed up, and posted chapter 12 and 13 as the same thing and have made you guys wait, they will only be one. So I hope you guys like the longer chapter J The first part of the chapter had so many red squiggles under the words that it was driving me crazy, I hate those things with a passion!

Well anyway I hope you have enjoyed this extra long chapter, unfortunately those of you who wish for longer chapters, they'll probably go back to being about a thousand words again. I mean I could always update less but with longer chapters- which one do you want me to do?(please tell me, pm or through review and I'll probably do whichever)

Don't forget to review J


	14. A hero is going to save me just in time

Ok well the less serious stuff . . . Well it's over. I really hoped you liked those random chapters.

So onto serious things once more. Yeah so, review and enjoy as always. J

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"Uh captain." Penguin managed.

"I'm not blind." He assured his navigator.

"Surrender heart pirates." Someone said as if they really expected the notorious pirates to surrender.

Vivian looked expectantly at Law, praying that it wasn't going to be each man for himself, free for all. He let out a chuckle as if he somehow found this very serious situation funny. And then he uttered one two-letter word that created so much chaos in only a few seconds. Law activated his devil fruit powers. He wasn't really in the mood to play and toy with the marines today, which was rather fortunate for them. Vivian didn't move from his side as he took out more then half of the marines that had thought it was a good idea to swarm the pirates. The people outside of his blue dome were being taken care of by Bepo and the other crewmates.

"Can you not use your nodachi?" Vivian asked even though he had used it to cut the marines into before he did what he did to them. It was an amazing power and she was glad that she wasn't on the receiving end. Vivian was grateful that she was in his good graces. Having swapped places with her father once had been scary enough. "Are you dependent on your devil fruit powers?"

"Is that a challenge Miss Vivian?" He asked. While he wasn't in the mood to play with them, he also wasn't in the mood to loose a challenge presented by his subordinate either.

"Yes sir it is."

"That's a deadly game Miss."

"Ahh yes, well being on your crew is a deadly game sir. But it's a fun one to play." She told him with a smile. Law was a man who deserved her fear despite him having done nothing wrong to her. It was a fearful kind of respect that he had with Vivian, whether or not he knew it.

He nodded "I applaud your guts. So I accept Miss Vivian." He couldn't resist bothering her even at a time like this. He couldn't help it when his cat girl made it so easy for him to get under her skin.

"Sir, please address me as Vivian." With that, the blue half sphere disappeared and the marines, thinking that they were safe, rushed forward in a wave of white uniform shirts and blue bottoms.

For a second Shachi stopped to stare at Captain and Vivian. The one that that went though his head was 'they are so going to get together.' The way they were fighting, like seasoned partners, but he knew better, they had never fought together, but the way they were doing it was truly an amazing sight. They were almost perfectly in sync with each other. Law would swing his nodachi only seconds after Vivian ducked even though her back was turned to him. She'd spin around his body to scratch at a group of marines attacking his blind side.

"Hey!" Bepo shouted, and brought his attention back to where he was, and his own fights and problems. Which he needed to pay attention to, no matter how mesmerizing Captain and Vivian were.

As well as Law's nodachi and Vivian's claws were doping, the marines still had guns. They had lousy aim, but two moving people weren't the easiest targets to shoot at and hit. But one lucky marine got one lucky shot and down went one of the pirates. It was the girl who he had shot. She collapsed but rolled away from the man the marine recognized as Trafalgar Law, who didn't even give a sideways glance over at his fallen comrade. The girl still had a lot of fight left in her despite the fact that she was fighting on the ground, on her back.

Vivian hit the ground and rolled as best as she could so her body could absorb the shock and so she could get out of Law's way. The first thought that crossed her mind was to stop the bleeding; Law could take care of the bullet embedded in her flesh and muscle later. But the marines, oh the foolish marines were on top of her almost instantly, trying to take advantage of her injury. But she still has ten sharp, bloody fingernails, one good strong leg, two sharp fang like teeth and survival instincts. They never really stood a chance, not with their dwindling numbers. The river was now a trickle and they decided to face the almost completely uninjured, but very bloody pirate captain, the larger threat. They could take care of his fallen cat girl later.

She saw it coming a mile away. Unfortunately, Law was only one man and he didn't have eyes on the back of his head, that's what Vivian had been when they were fighting together. The marine charged forwards saber drawn and held in front of him. If she didn't move this was going to be the en of Law, who couldn't be done in by a saber and a blind spot.

When Vivian stood, the pain shooting up her thigh almost made her black out, black spots invading her vision and she might have screamed, she couldn't remember, she was concentrating on trying to intercept the marine. Because she was sure of one thing, she had to beat him to her captain. Failing was not an option.

She limped as fast as she could towards Law with the help of adrenaline. She wanted to scream, she wanted him to turn around- but she couldn't, it would take far too long. Just before the saber impaled Law Vivian threw herself in-between it and her captains unsuspecting back, pushing him forwards so that the blade wouldn't get him. It slid through her as easily as a arrow slices through the air, at an upwards angle. The metal protruded from her chest.

Law was roughly shoved forwards. He turned around to see who had done it before using his nodachi to finish them off. But he saw Vivian, standing there, eyes wide as bloody silver slipped easily out of her chest. She collapsed to her knees with a wet cough before slumping to the ground. Almost thoughtlessly, Law swung his nodachi, slicing the person in tow. He had to stop the external bleeding; it might buy them some time. He took the res sash of his nodachi off, it would have to work for now. He tied it tightly around her body before cutting and ripping a section of her jeans off to make another makeshift bandage. Law picked Vivian up, she curled into him, her breath coming in short raged breaths. He noticed that the battlefield had gone still.

However after a shout from a marine they rushed forwards, still ready to fight him, and why not, his arms were filled with a dieing girl. Now he really wasn't in the mood.

Law smiled, it wasn't one he usually gave Vivian, no this one was dangerous. If the marines would stop to take a look at it, they'd realize that they should be running the other direction. They'd realize that Law had been going easy on them; they'd see that his playtime was over, that he was done playing nice. Looking down at Vivian Law murmured, "It appears that I have failed your challenge." As he said this, the blue dome reappeared with the word 'room'. Shambles and a few other attacks followed before the remaining marines bodies fell to the ground with screams and thuds. Heads screamed and protested, limbs still flailing- after all, they weren't dead. And one man walking away as if he couldn't care in the least, and he didn't. The crew was already on the sub, waiting for their captain as he took her to the operating room.

He unwrapped the makeshift bandages and began to almost desperately work on her. She had lost so much blood and that was before he began operating on the girl. Even when the heart monitor flat lined he tried to restart her heart. This time however it wasn't as simple as removing her heart, sewing her bleeding chest up, mending the heart and putting in back in. This time it was much more complicated. But even then, she couldn't be dead. She couldn't die.

"Captain is taking awhile." Penguin muttered nervously, breaking the silence. It had been hours since their captain had carried in a limp cat girl, a possibly dead Vivian. They were waiting just outside the operating room.

"Do you want to check on Captain?" Bepo asked. He too was worried, everyone was.

Penguin and Shachi nodded. But before either of them could open the cold closed door, it opened and Law walked out, peeling off the bloody white gloves, the mask hanging down around his neck.

"Is she-" Shachi began to ask.

Law gave them a chilling look that silenced them instantly. They peeked into the room to see her laying there, as if she was sleeping. They turned away from the room and looked at their captains retreating back. Had he succeeded or failed? They all wondered. They had all watched Vivian throw herself in front of the marine, shove their captain out of the way and take the blow so clearly meant for the supernova, instead of allowing it to hit him.

Penguin recovered first, or enough to run to catch up to Law and ask almost fearlessly, "You saved her right?"

He shrugged Penguin's hand off of his shoulder and muttered one word "Sorry."

Penguin stopped dead in his tracks, but Law continued walking, not to his office not too far from the operating room, but to his room.


	15. Um Hello?

After that, a cloud of depression seemed to hang around more then just Bepo as everyone tried to go on with their everyday lives, pretending that nothing had happened. No one talked unless they absolutely had to; they were all wrapped in their own thoughts. Shock that their captain had failed to save their cat girl was something everyone felt, that and how they each missed Vivian in a different way. For Penguin, there was no talking to anyone in the control room, no quiet conversations, no girl watching the fish swim by, wishing she could snatch that fish out of the water and snack on it. Shachi because no on was as fun to mess with and play pranks of unsuspecting people with, no more scapegoat. Bepo missed not being the only oddity on the crew. And Law . . . He simply missed her, all of her.

Law ran what happened through his mind, constantly thinking 'what if', only a trillion of those bombarded him, a million 'if. . . Had happened instead of. . .' plagued his mind. Because of that, he couldn't sleep, not without the scene repeatedly playing itself in slow motion, or other torturous ways in his dreams. He could have saved her; Law knew that he could have. Even after giving her a blood transfusion of Shachi's blood, he had still failed. His conscious mind was even more cruel then his subconscious. Both were cruel devices used to torture him in the worst ways possible.

While logic would tell him that there was nothing he could do to prevent Vivian from being stabbed, his imagination told hid him other wise.

They stood there gaping openly at their captain, who had four straws in one hand. He had just explained what purpose they served.

"R-really Captain?" Shachi managed to verbalize through his shock.

"None of us want to do it, so yes Shachi, really." Law curtly said to him.

"So whoever get's the shortest straw has to. . ." Penguin trialed off, avoiding saying her name, as he confirmed his captains plans.

"Correct." Law nodded and they reached forwards and drew straws, comparing them to each other's. They turned t look at their captain, who in turn looked at Shachi with a triumph smirk. He hadn't lost his own game. "Sorry." He didn't have much sympathy for his rapidly paling mechanic, just was glad that he didn't have to do the honors.

He hung his head and shuffled out of the room. It wasn't as if none of them had never taken care of a dead body, hell they all had at one point or another. However, this was so much different, treating their beloved tigress as every other body they hauled off the ship. Shachi let out a depressed sigh, he wanted to do this as much as the next guy. Shachi reached the operating room and hesitated at the door, trying to mentally prepare himself, for what, he didn't know. It was just a dead body after all. .. Right? With another heavy sigh, he pushed the door open.

Not ten minutes later Law's door slammed open, not even a minute after a piercing scream. "CAPTAIN!" his subordinate shouted, excitedly. However, Law couldn't tell if it was joy excitement or fear excitement. He didn't have time to dwell on that as his wrist was grabbed and he was dragged to the operating room.

Vivian sat there, staring at a shocked Shachi. They blinked a few times before he said "Hello." When she responded to that, he ran screaming from the room. Bloody bandages covered her chest and abdomen as well as her thigh. The hold in her leg hurt, but she couldn't feel the wound that she was sure had been the death of her.

Did Law actually manage to save me?" Vivian wondered in amazement. Was there anything that man couldn't do? She vaguely remembered being picked up and the pain as he carried her somewhere. She also just barely remembered him saying that he was sorry that he hadn't beaten her challenge. It was quite ok with her now; those marines deserved nothing less then Law's wrath to be brought down upon them. But what she didn't understand was why he was so angry, why he had been so quick to withdraw from her challenge and demolish the marines.

Shachi dragged his captain into the room; Vivian was in fact still sitting up, meaning that he was not crazy, and was not hallucination- maybe, there was still the possibility that he was seeing what he wanted to see. "See!?" He exclaimed pointing at the somewhat dazed looking cat girl.

"You're not dead." Law said in an almost uncaring voice, not an ounce of shock could be seen on his face, or heard in his voice.

It was almost as if he didn't care. But Shachi knew better. Maybe he was trying to figure out if he should believe his eyes of not. Shachi decided to excuse his captain's tone of voice, figuring that he must be right.

"Did I die?" She asked, doing that adorable thing where she tilted her head to the side and furrow her brow, tail swishing behind her.

Law did however laugh at that, in disbelief. "Die? No, you- you-" Law stopped trying to explain with a shake of his head. Words could not describe how relieved he was, there were other feelings too, and a hell of a lot more questions. But the strongest and most recognizable emotions were relief and disbelief. Vivian wasn't dead. They had just suffered a week of thinking that his Vivian was dead. What divine force found this funny? Law wanted to know so that they could have a talk. "How are you alive?" Did she decide to not go into the light, or was his machinery just faulty?

She laughed almost nervously but bluntly said "I have nine lives."

"E-excuse me?" Shachi gaped; cutting Law's shocked response off.

"Y-yeah. I believe that I have nine lives. Or maybe it would be ten, you know, including my one human life. That makes since right?" She asked Law even though Shachi had been the one to respond. She hadn't been sure before because who was going to test a theory like that out.

"I see." Law muttered, deep in thought. Her deduction of ten lives made sense if she had one human life and nine cat lives. But why would it take her a week to 'wake' up? "So that means that you had to have 'died' before correct?" He began racking his brain for any bit of a hint to as to if she had already lost a life.

She nodded slowly. "Y-yeah. Remember me telling you about my dad drowning me?"

Again, he nodded. It clicked. She had chosen the word choice she had when they were having that conversation because she had in fact been drowned, not an attempt, not almost drowning. But she had died, her lungs had run out of oxygen, filled with water and she had died. "Meaning that you have how many lives left?" He inquired.

"Well let's see. . ." She held up ten fingers and said, "Well daddy dearest used up one of my lives when I was fifteen. And I'm unsure if I died when that one assassin got me back when you swooped down and saved me. That would've been my first cat life, and the one just yesterday, so I should be one my second cat life."

"You died last week." Law muttered. So had she basically 'slept' everything off? He'd have to check later, after this conversation. "And I assure you, you didn't die Vivian. If you had. . ." Law trailed off, letting her imagination take over from there. After all, when he had first picked her up, she was simply something he wanted to study, something interesting for him to occupy his time with. He most likely would have preformed some tests and have disposed of her. End of story.

"I know." Vivian grumbled, her imagination doing exactly what Law had intended for it to d, it ran rampant. Fortunately, for Vivian she didn't know that her rampant imagination wasn't too far from what Law would have done to her if she had in fact died on that fateful day. "So did you miss me?" She muttered.

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Haha well a few people caught on, I guess it's the title? Well I did that on purpose. As for killing the oc off . . . The one and only oc of the story- well where that would get me? Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews!


	16. Go to Sleep Already

Shachi whistled and laughed, doubling over and slapping his knee. Miss? Ha, that was an understatement. "Miss you? You should have seen Captain; he was depressed and couldn't sleep-"

"Shachi." Law warned. Vivian didn't need to know what wouldn't hurt her. And knowing that he was unable to sleep was something that wasn't going to hurt her if she remained uneducated. Not only that but Shachi made it sound as if the lack of sleep wasn't the entire crew's behavior for the last week.

Vivian's brow furrowed, and she looked almost concerned. "Is that why you look horrible?"

Shachi gaped at the cat girl and looked between them, trying to gauge his captain's reaction. Did she have a death wish?! Maybe she did since she had nine lives to waste.

"Yes Vivian and it's all your fault." Law coolly said. It was the truth and sometimes the truth hurt, which was too damn bad if it hurt her.

"I'm sorry." She apologized before slipping out of the bed and grabbing Law's hand. Her fingertips were freezing he noticed as she gently pulled him out of the room. As she passed Shachi, she said "See ya later Shachi. Oh, and keep this a secret. I wanna surprise the rest of the crew. So as far as you're concerned, I'm still dead, alright?"

Shachi nodded and wondered why Vivian was so weird? Shouldn't she be rejoicing that she was alive? Or reacting in a different manner. And where was she taking captain?

"You have eight lives left correct?" Law questioned. Vivian nodded. If what Law had told her, then she was on her third life, eight remaining. "May I ask you what you were thinking before you did such an imprudent, thoughtless thing?'

"Of corse you could ask, but do you want the answer to that question?"

"I would. If I didn't I wouldn't have asked."

She took a deep breath and said "I thought that I was already as good as dead- was going to die anyway. You're also the captain, the most important part of the crew, the brain, the leader, the king, what would we do without you? But me, I'm just your subordinate- nothing important. Plus I was the only one who could have reached you in time. I also thought you could take care of any injuries I sustained." Vivian's voice got quieter and quieter until she was half whispering, half muttering until it was almost incoherent. She opened the door of his room and walked in. Law closed it with his foot, an after thought as he was pulled into his room, Vivian still gently pulling him along. She pulled him to the bed before crawling to the side farthest form them and snuggled under the covers saying "No you can rest easily."

"I don't want you throwing those extra lives you have away." Law said firmly, as he slowly peeled the covers back and getting into the bed.

"I'll waste them as I see fit." She told him, knowing that he was grateful that she had taken the blow, just unhappy with her letting him think that she was dead.

"You're playing a dangerous game, and death isn't the result." Law told Vivian in a neutral voice, smirk playing on his lips as he rolled over to face her…

"What do you mean? Sleeping isn't a dangerous game."

"No, lying in my bed is." Law said, obviously confusing Vivian.

"This is completely safe." Vivian answered, not as confidently as she wanted to sound.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked, propping himself up on his elbow, looking down at a wide-eyed tigress.

She licked her lips nervously. "N-not any more I'm not." Law was a dangerous man and laying in his bed with him so close, with that look in his eyes, it seemed even more dangerous then throwing herself in front of that sword meant for him. She squirmed but didn't get out of the bed they were sharing.

"Why so scared?" Law chuckled at her. He was enjoying her fear, the way she shifted, the way she knew that this could get very bad very fast; bust still didn't get up or flee.

"B-because you-you're a scary man Law." Vivian wanted to beat herself for the way her voice came out, cracked and scared.

"You're the one who ripped your father's heart out with a smile." He pointed out as if that had any relevance or could be compared to his 'scariness' at all. Which it couldn't, he was a lot scarier then a pissed off woman literally ripping her father's heart out. After all, he was the supernova, he was the one who had a bounty over one hundred million beli.

"He deserved it." She weakly defended herself and her none too harsh actions. That man deserved so much worse then what she had done to him.

Law chuckled, seeing the anger that flashed through her frightened eyes. "That he did." He leaned down a little over Vivian and had the privilege of feeling her breath come in short ragged breaths that were far from her regular breathing pattern.

"L-Law?" Vivian gasped out, audibly gulping.

"Hmm?" He asked bending down even farther, his eyes only about half open.

"Are you going to kiss me?"

"I don't know, close your eyes and find out." Law was having fun teasing her, especially after having made him think that she was dead and gone for a whole week. That had been the worst week of his life, and planned to never have to relive that again. She closed her eyes obediently, glad that she could escape his intense gaze, glad that she didn't have to keep trying to keep control. If her eyes weren't open, she didn't have to try to hide anything, nothing could be seen, and her soul couldn't be looked into. Their faces were so close, so close that she could feel his steady hot breath on her face. His lips grazed her, breaking any train of thought that had been about to form. They skimmed down the skin of her jaw line, making her shudder as goose bumps popped up on the surface of her skin. Did he know what he was going? She wondered. He was driving her crazy, and he had hardly done anything! He had to. Vivian silently determined.

His lips parted on her neck and she gasped as he began sucking on her skin. He could feel her heart rate accelerate even more beneath his lips and he smirked. She gasped, but before she could react the door opened and an exasperated voice said "Captain, Shachi is action far too happy for having just disposed of Vivian's dead bo-" He stopped mid word, seeing his captain on his elbows half on top of the person who was supposed to be dead. The only light in the room was the light from the hall, illuminating only his captains back, a single ridge under the blankets below him, and white and black stripes under his captain.

She craned her head to the side to see a shocked Penguin frozen in the doorway. "Hello Penguin." She offered him a weak smile, unsure if she was irritated or thankful that Penguin had interrupted them.

"Y-you're alive?" He sagged against the doorframe, looking relieved, though of what neither Law or Vivian knew, nor they would never know. "D-did I-I-" a dark red color tainted his cheeks as he realized what he had done.

"Yes." Law interrupted his navigator.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The blush deepened.

Law feigned a sigh as he rolled onto his back, away from Vivian. "It's fine." Penguin offered another apology before he backed out of the room, closing the door and enveloping the room in darkness once more. Vivian sat up, but Law stopped her. He strained to reach up and kiss her cheek before saying "We'll resume this later."

"But you said you were tired." She said, remembering the reason she had even brought Law to his room. It certainly wasn't to do what Penguin had caught them doing.

Law chuckled at her. "I never said that. You simply chose to believe Shachi."

"Because you look tired." The rings under his slipping closed eyes were more then tell-tale signs that Shachi was right. She pushed his shoulders back down to the bed and wrapped her arms around his waist, smuggling into his side. "Go to sleep. I'm alright, awake and about to fall asleep."

"Who said you were the reason I couldn't sleep?" He questioned her because he could.

"Woman's intuition and Shachi's words." She mumbled then lifted her head to look down at him before closing his eyelids, saying, "You're a very stubborn man Trafalgar Law."

He wrapped his arms around Vivian's waist and pulled her closer to his body, closer then she already was. "You're a very persistent woman Vivian."

"Close your mouth too." She grumbled clamping her hand over his mouth before adding the word "Please." Because she remembered that as the captain of the ship, and as Trafalgar Law, he disliked taking orders.

"That's all you had to do." He said, her hand muffling his voice. He contemplated childishly licking her hand to get it off his mouth, but he restrained himself from doing so.

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Anyone heard of the song Hero by skillet? Well it's where the title of chapter 13- a hero's going to save me just in time. It's a line of the song. Also, there's a title called awake and alive . . . that's where the awake and about to fall asleep line came from. *sigh* I guess you have to know the band and their songs to get it. Well I found it appropriate and I get a lot of inspiration from music, lines, words, paragraphs, music videos and other things. Oh hey did you guys know that Trafalgar is not only a place, nut also a type of submarine? Look it up, I'm not making this up.


	17. The End

Poor Bepo had been left out of the loop, until the cat girl herself was walking down the hall, Law next to her, their hands clasped.

"Vivian!" The bear shouted, running to the pair. He tackled her to the ground and hugged her so tightly that even if she wanted to claw her way out form under him, she couldn't.

"Bepo." A voice said after it was done laughing at her stunned expression. He was squeezing the life out of the girl who was no longer pale, but turning blue instead. "If you wish for Vivian to remain living I suggest you let go of her." The reaction was immediate; the bear released her and jumped nimbly to his feet.

"How long have you been like that?"

Vivian thought for a second. How long has she been like this? By 'like this' she assumed that he meant her being in a state of lively-ness, not being dead. Had it really only been a day, a whole twenty-four hours? There was no way that was possibly right.

"Oh, well welcome back." Bepo said with a smile.

She smiled back and wrapped her arms around the fluffy soft bear, rubbing her cheek against his neck. Hmmm, so soft. She thought to herself before pulling back. "Your welcome had been the second warmest." Penguin's was the shyest and Shachi's had been the loudest.

"W-who was the first?" Bepo asked looking at his captain as though he either had a growing suspicion or thought that he had the answer.

The pale cat girl ducked her head, but not before both captain and first mate saw the rosy color bud on each of her cheeks. "N-no one. I-I g-gotta go." with that horrible lie she sped off to anywhere that wasn't where Law or Bepo were.

"It was you captain." Bepo confirmed as he watched Vivian run away.

Way to be obvious. Law thought to himself, not answering Bepo's accusation as he walked off.

"How did you hurt yourself?" Penguin asked as she walked into the control room.

"Huh?" She began inspecting her half-covered arms for a bruise or scrape, something that would have made Penguin say something like that. But found nothing.

He pointed to his neck. "That's an unusual place to hit yourself." He said, forgetting the scene he had walked in on a week ago. He had quickly pushed that out of his mind, tried not to dwell on what he saw, was just glad that his captain wasn't going what he first thought he had been doing. After all, Vivian had been dead and he hadn't known otherwise, what else was there to think?

She blushed and muttered, "I don't quite know." The only thing that had been near her neck was Law's lips, in the dark recesses of his room, late at night, sometimes in the early morning. His behavior had been strange lately- not that Vivian was complaining.

"How do you not quite know?" Penguin gaped at her. The neck isn't' exactly a place you easily get hit. If the bruises were more on her arms, or her legs or anywhere else he would believe her. But her neck was she lying to him?

She shrugged. "It just happened. You know I sortta bruise easily."

"I have another question for you Vivian," he said slowly, as if he wasn't sure that he should be asking this or not.

"What?" She warily returned his question with another question.

"Are you and Captain together?" He impatiently asked. Ever since, she had 'woken up' her and Captain had been acting differently. He had caught them more then kissing- everywhere, up against walls, around corners and just about every other place imaginable. And if they weren't kissing, they were holding hands or touching in some way shape or form, not to mention the number of bruises on her pale skin had more then multiplied. It was a good thing the walls in the sub were thick, and they had yet to keep anyone up.

"I-I don't quite know." She murmured, her face turning bright red.

"H-how do you 'not quite know'?" How did someone not know if they were in a relationship or not?! Dear lord, the answer was like black writing on white paper, did it need to be spelled out for her?

Her face tuned even more red; her tail stopped swaying and fell limp, adding to the depressed look. She kind of resembled Bepo when he became depressed. "I don't know."

"Do you know anything?" He cautiously tested. If she didn't know the answer to this one, there was something wrong with her.

"No." She said in a sad whimpering voice. That was it. He grabbed her wrist and marched them to wherever captain was.

They burst into his office, he looked up from whatever he was writing, and waited for an exclamation, it didn't help that Vivian looked confused and Penguin determined. "Are you and Vivian romantically involved with each other?"

A look of surprised flashed across his face before it retuned to it's normal placid expression, with a smirk. "That is up to Miss Vivian." Both men turned towards the beet red cat girl. "However I do not that that is any of your business Mr. Penguin." That was a nice way of saying, 'it's none of your concern, stop bothering me over trivial things that don't matter'. So he left not wanting to put his captain in a bad mood. Since Penguin left, without his answer, Vivian moved to leave too, only for Law's voice to stop her. "Miss Vivian-"

"Sir, I'd really appreciate it if you would start getting my name right." She said turning to face the man again.

"I'm sure you would." He said with a smile, bothering Vivian never failed, and this time was no exception. He stood and walked around to the other side of his desk to stand in front of her.

She nodded in agreement. "I would." she nervously glanced away from him then back and asked "Are we romantically involved?"

Law lifted his hand, she flinched, afraid that he was going to hit her. But her only gently cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb agsint her cheekbone, his other hand on the curve of her waist, holding her closely agsint him. He leaned in and kissed her, long and hard. But as her arms began to wrap around her, as she began to melt into him, he pulled away and in a slightly breathless voice asked "I don't know, are we?" With that, he left and went to check their corse, leaving a confused Vivian behind.

She stood there, the space before her no longer filled with a warm, inviting body. No, it was empty and void of warmth. After a few seconds, she lifted her hand up, touched the tips of her fingers to her lips, and murmured the unsure words "I think so."

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Well that's the end. . .I was getting board with it and figured it was a cute-ish ending. Totally my style of ending things. But yeah, sincerely I hope and pray that you have enjoyed the fanfic.

I wanna thank the reviewers and readers for doing exactly both of those things, reading and reviewing. J


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